A free yoga class at the University of Ottawa is on hiatus, apparently because of concerns over “cultural issues” surrounding the practice, prompting a social-media maelstrom and reports from news outlets around the globe.

Jen Scharf, who taught the class since 2008, said she’s aware that some people believe widespread adoption of yoga in Western societies amounts to “cultural appropriation,” but that the decision to suspend her seminar was going too far.

“What started out as a good thing has unfortunately become polluted by someone else’s agenda,” Scharf, 31, told the Star.

“I think that this has been a long time coming, that effectively political correctness is the new face of bullying. There are unhappy people everywhere, and they see happy people — misery loves company, right?”

The yoga class was hosted by the university’s Centre for Students with Disabilities, which is run by the Student Federation of the University of Ottawa (SFUO). Scharf learned the class wouldn’t be held this year when she received an email from the federation in September. She said she had heard of one person complaining about the class.

“Yoga has been under a lot of controversy lately due to how it is being practiced and what practices from what cultures (which are often sacred spiritual practices) they are being taken from,” the email stated. “Many of these cultures are cultures that have experienced oppression, cultural genocide and diasporas due to colonialism and western supremacy, and we need to be mindful of this and how we express ourselves and while practicing yoga.”

Romeo Ahimakin, acting federation president and spokesperson, said in an emailed statement that the class was suspended for review because such a review has never taken place. “It is this review process, which is important to ensure that the SFUO evolves as students' needs evolve, that will best allow us to meet these diverse and ever-changing needs of the student body,” the statement said.

Néomie Duval, spokesperson for the University of Ottawa, said the school administration had nothing to do with the federation’s decision. She added other free yoga classes are still being offered on campus.

The internet was aglow with chatter about the yoga suspension. Columnists from American newspapers commented on Twitter — a former New York Daily News writer said the federation’s logic would mean the suspension of algebra classes, since that branch of mathematics originated in Babylonia — while Fox News, the Oklahoma City Sun Times, the United Kingdom’s Daily Mail, and News.com.au in Australia had covered the story by Monday evening.

The term “cultural appropriation” is usually used when people are offended that members of the dominant or mainstream culture have cherry-picked certain elements of a marginalized culture for their own purposes. Think white kids in reggae bands or non-aboriginal people donning headdresses at music festivals.

There is disagreement on when and where yoga emerged as a physical and mental health routine, but it is generally accepted that the practice evolved out of the Indian subcontinent, perhaps as much as 2,500 years ago.

Latha Sukumar, a Toronto lawyer and yoga instructor, has been practicing yoga for more than 35 years. She said yoga was once generally contained to the Hindu elite and celebrates its proliferation across the spectrum of Indian society and around the world.

“I don’t believe yoga is a cultural practice. I believe it’s a universal one,” Sukumar told the Star. “To call it cultural appropriation is to sort of subvert the term for some political purpose.

“I think it should be accessible to all,” she added. “It should be treated like any other healing profession.”

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Scharf, the Ottawa yoga teacher, said she hopes people don’t rush to condemn the students who decided to scrap her class.

“We just need to accept that these are kids, and they don’t maybe know any better. We need to have compassion for them.”