Censorship protested in Regina
An interesting story coming out of Regina, where professors have quit a downtown lecture series in protest over censorship.
An interesting story coming out of Regina, where professors have quit a downtown lecture series in protest over censorship.
Profs in the Park, a partnership between the Regina Downtown Business
Improvement District and the University of Regina Faculty of Arts, came
to a grinding halt one day after it began. The program was to have provided free lectures in Victoria Park – but then the RDBID ordered a professor speaking on Palestine and global economic
sanctions to change her topic or cancel it.
In response, all the professors withdrew from the series,
and the downtown event programmer quit his job in protest, saying he
could not reconcile censorship with his personal beliefs. His strongly-worded statement is here.
It has since been reported that a prominent Regina city councilor who also sits on the RDBID board brought forward the complaint that pulled the plug.
The Faculty of Arts announced today that Profs in the Park will return as Profs in the City,
and will be held in a downtown gallery instead of the city-managed
Victoria Park. Although Twitter is abuzz, local media coverage has been
quite low key.
Patricia W. Elliott is a magazine journalist and assistant professor at the School of Journalism, University of Regina. You can visit her at patriciaelliott.ca.