Article content continued

In a subsequent 43-minute disciplinary meeting, Shepherd’s superiors told her that she was fostering a “toxic” and “unsafe” learning environment, and compared her screening of a portion of the debate to exposing her students to Nazi ideology. They also claimed, falsely, that she had broken Canadian law.

When a recording of the encounter was made public, Wilfrid Laurier University responded with a statement saying the hearing “does not reflect the values and practices to which Laurier aspires.” In an accompanying open letter, Shepherd’s supervising professor, Nathan Rambukkana, wrote that “maybe I have to get out of an ‘us versus them’ habit of thought.”

The Rainbow Centre, by contrast, accused Wilfrid Laurier University of “silence” on the issue of transphobia.

“The discourse of freedom of speech, is being used to cover over the underlying reality of transphobia that is so deeply ingrained in our contemporary political context,” reads the Rainbow Centre’s statement.

Photo by Facebook.com

Articles and columns written in support of Shepherd, meanwhile, were said to be “defending and perpetuating transphobic beliefs and attitudes.”

The statement does not directly name Shepherd or the professors who met with her, claiming that “confidentiality” makes the Rainbow Centre “unable to comment directly.” (Shepherd had already chosen to name herself in the media.)

Nevertheless, the statement suggests that the debate of gendered pronouns is “disallowable speech” that constitutes “a form of epistemic violence that dehumanizes trans people by denying the validity of trans experience.”