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He also speculated that “The Europeans [would not only have to] apologize but admit that their history is a sordid tale of genocide, and then hand over the lands in which this ‘sordid exclusion’ was played out to those who were excluded.”

Mr. Jang says he was appalled. He had an email exchange with Prof. Duchense, and a string of accusations and counter-accusations followed, with allegations of racism directed at the UNB instructor. Mr. Jang told a local reporter that with the likes of Prof. Duchesne on its faculty, he “would not feel safe” visiting UNB.

He wrote to senior UNB administrators, claiming that Prof. Duchesne’s “blog postings and e-mails” are “troublesome in that they go beyond fair comment and abuse the privilege of academic freedom by their pejorative nature that is based on poor scholarship.”

Mr. Jang asked the university to review the matter. Which the university did. Last week, responding to media inquiries about the matter, a UNB vice-president indicated the school stands by its professor and his controversial views.

“Academic freedom is a foundational principle of university life,” Robert MacKinnon said in a written statement from his UNB office. “Often, such academic debate expresses views that may be perceived as controversial and unpopular.”

The statement did not mention Prof. Duchesne by name. It did not explain why the professor sent his email to Mr. Jang and to other Vancouver city councillors of Asian background, nor did it indicate what steps the university had taken as part of its review.