Weeks into the drama at Wilfrid Laurier University, clear winners and losers have emerged.

Teaching assistant Lindsay Shepherd has gained international recognition; her supervisors have been pilloried.

Unfortunately, proponents of the political-correctness-is-killing-free-speech narrative have a juicy bone they can trot out again and again.

One of these voices is a passive participant in the saga, but one of its biggest beneficiaries. Prof. Jordan Peterson has built a niche for himself as a pronoun contrarian.

Shepherd was reprimanded for showing students a clip of Peterson debating pronouns without framing the remarks as “problematic.” Peterson also proudly opposed legislation prohibiting discrimination based on gender expression.

The professor still has a following, to be sure. But the more people were exposed to his rants against social justice and a “neo-Marxist” agenda, the more he receded to the margins.

When Shepherd was called on the carpet for exposing students to Peterson’s views without context, the professor’s ideas were catapulted back into mainstream consciousness. With the release of Shepherd’s audio tape of the meeting where she was reprimanded, the fault lines were clearly drawn. The people holding power made inflammatory comparisons, invoking an evil no less than Hitler. Peterson’s pro-discrimination arguments, wrapped as free-speech advocacy, suddenly emerged on the side of the underdog.

The incident at Laurier will long be cited as an example of “political correctness” running roughshod over the free exchange of ideas.

In the U.S., the perception that controversial speakers are being silenced on university campuses is being deployed as a strategy to confer legitimacy on white nationalism.

It’s no accident National Policy Institute director Richard Spencer scheduled university appearances following the deadly rally in Charlottesville. His appearance on campus typically draws large, animated protests.

In October the University of Florida, citing student safety, was unable to prevent NPI from renting a venue on campus — called no-platforming.

Ever the showman, Spencer appeared on CNN, saying he was flattered to be held on a par with “hurricanes and invading armies and zombie apocalypses,” referring to a local state of emergency invoked to facilitate added security.

Spencer and his white nationalist colleagues have mastered the art of manipulating no-platforming, posturing to be seen as victims of censorship and to spread their message to a wider audience. If they’re denied a platform to speak, they win. If their presence provokes protest, they claim it as a win, too. If it provokes violent protest, they win big. Former Breitbart editor Milo Yiannopoulos revels in repeating there’s nothing the left hates more than free speech.

The perverse result is that free speech itself, as a rallying cry, is now emerging as a dog-whistle for embattled white nationalism.

There’s a lesson in this for Canadian universities. Stifling intolerant voices doesn’t make them disappear.

At the end of a week featuring a historic apology to LGBTQ2 Canadians, there should be no doubt anti-discrimination policies remain important to ensure trans students and other minorities can learn in a safe and respectful environment.

Treating students with respect also means creating opportunities to hear ideas that challenge their own preconceptions, to be exposed to bad arguments, and the tools to overcome them with better arguments, and to exercise critical thinking.

In other words, to learn.

write.robin@baranyai.ca