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Lee believes that if Jacobs were to speak that way about Canadian victims of sexual assault, let alone sexual-assault survivors at her own school, “she’d be out of a job.” “I think the institution would be in deep hot water,” he said. “And it would be seen as a scandal.”

In a brief interview with the National Post, Jacobs herself admitted that some sexual violence had likely taken place. “I’m not going to say they (the soldiers) didn’t rape them,” she said. “OK?” But she did question the extent of the attacks. “Have 70,000 been raped? I don’t know.”

(It’s not clear where Jacobs got that figure from. No major human rights organization has made such a claim.)

Jacobs also doubled down on the idea that some of the reports, at least, could have been faked. “I’ll tell you why, because many times you’re talking to a person who may also have been told to say certain things,” she said.

As for ethnic cleansing, Jacobs said it’s a question of terminology and evidence. “First of all, you see, I am a scholar, I want a definition of ethnic cleansing and the definition you get is varied,” she said. “Have 500,000 been crossed over and moved? Yes. Are all Muslims in Myanmar being moved out? No? … So how is ethnic cleansing happening?”

Photo by AP Photo/Dar Yasin

Jacobs also said she doesn’t know why so many Rohingya have fled. “I’m not saying they’re not brutes,” she said about the army. “I’m just saying I don’t know what to believe. Can one have that attitude? I think so.”

But to Neve, there is no ambiguity in the situation at all. “Six hundred thousand people do not flee a country in less than two months and huddle in overcrowded makeshift refugee sites in the world’s most impoverished country just for the fun of it,” he said.