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The document goes on to say that the boundaries of free expression should be dictated by Canadian law, and that illegal forms of expression, such as defamatory, harassing or hate speech, will be restricted by the university. Civility alone, the document says, can not be a justification for limiting free speech.

However, the battle is not won. The campus left at Wilfrid Laurier is fighting strenuously to ensure that this report is never adopted.

Meanwhile, the orthodoxy of political correctness has spread to other campuses.

Rick Mehta, a psychology professor at Acadia University in Wolfville, N.S., has spoken out on social media and in his classroom about controversial topics such as decolonization, immigration and gender politics, meeting with both support and condemnation. As well, he has challenged the prevailing trends towards “safe spaces” and “trigger warnings” before students ever need be confronted with uncomfortable opinions.

For these actions, one of Acadia’s senior administrators, dean of arts Jeff Hennessy, wrote and distributed this inherently libellous tract to Acadia’s faculty and administration:

“I don’t want to debate these issues with you because I find your position on them, frankly, uninformed, unscholarly and backed only by your interpretations of scant research which seems to me, to support a confirmation bias.

I find your assertion that our institutional goals to create a more diverse, equable and inclusive campus somehow impinges upon your academic freedom to be paranoid and misinformed. I can’t imagine many other organizations where you would get away with spreading your biases freely the way you have thereby and thereby causing such stress and anguish for your colleagues.”