22 Dec 2008 National Post


Beware The Campus Thought Police

Recently, I was chatting with a close friend who is an upper-year student at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont. Queen’s, you will remember, was in the headlines a few weeks ago for its since-repudiated plans to create a creepy, roving band of politically correct snoops who would insinuate themselves into private student conversations. (The school was spared further ridicule only when the Carleton University Student’s Association took over the headlines with an even stupider decision to the effect that white men with cystic fibrosis were unworthy of being kept alive.)

I asked my friend how it felt to be at such a bastion of enforced liberalism. I expected a goodnatured response, accompanied by a similar jab at my own alma mater. But his response was quite serious: He told me of two friends of his who’d had very real run-ins with the political correctness brigade, both regarding matters well outside their mandate.

Intrigued, I asked him to put me in touch with his friends, and he kindly did so. Both of them agreed to talk to me, but as they are both soon to graduate and enter the workforce, they asked not to be named. “Karen” told me of a group project gone wrong, with personal conflicts disrupting progress toward finishing a major assignment. When one of the group members stopped attending the group meetings or contributing her share to the project, Karen — admittedly frustrated and feeling the stress herself — sent her an angry email. In it, to the best of her recollection, she wrote, “Hope you had a fun night f-----g your boyfriend while the rest of us worked on our project.”

What should have been viewed as simply a use of foul language while giving vent to pent-up frustration was instead turned into a pseudo-legal proceeding. The “victim” complained to the class instructor that she was being sexually harassed by a fellow student. The course instructor brought in the Human Rights office, mandated to deal with cases of discrimination and harassment on campus, which assigned both women an advisor. A meeting was arranged between the students, their respective advisors and the department head. In brief, Karen was told that if she didn’t co-operate, the Human Rights office had the prerogative to ban her from campus.

Ultimately, the group project was suspended and replaced by individual assignments, for which the “victim” reportedly was granted extensions and preferential treatment. Karen herself received a mark well below her usual level of academic excellence. Perhaps most distressingly, she was also told that she was not permitted to discuss this issue (hence the withholding of her true name). The consequences of speaking out were left unspecified. In the second example my friend brought to my attention, even the administrators seemed to grasp how ridiculous the situation was.
My friend’s friend — we’ll call her “Judy” — was part of a school club that helped organize an offcampus charity event. A skilled dancer, Judy was part of a group of female students who got up on stage and performed a “cabaret dance,” which fitted with the theme of the evening. The costumes of the women in the dance group were what you’d expect — dress shirts tucked into shorts, fishnet stockings, etc. Fun was had by (almost) all, and money raised for a worthy cause.

But shortly thereafter, Judy was contacted by a representative of the Equity Office, which is tasked with ensuring that the university’s workers and students can work and learn in an environment free of discrimination — a laudable goal.

Judy, however, wasn’t being accused of standing in the way of anyone’s employment or education, but rather of causing offence. A student had complained to Equity that Judy’s costume was demeaning to women.

The chain of logic here challenges the mind — a student chooses to attend an off-campus event which is raising money for a good cause, and decides that one woman out of a troupe of comparably dressed dancers is somehow an affront to the female gender.

According to Judy, the representative from Equity at least seemed embarrassed to have to come to her and report the complaint, and no action was taken or threatened. Regardless, the fact that an organization devoted to on-campus equality would even deign to get involved in such a dispute, instead of more properly brushing it off as outside their mandate, speaks to the extent that political correctness has infiltrated our campuses. Rather than waste the time of organizations needed to address legitimate societal problems, we would all be better served if Canada’s current generation of university students took the time to develop a thicker skin and a sense of humour —or at least learned the lesson that none of us has a human right to lead a life free of interpersonal conflict.

We had student union handbooks that replaced woman with womyn.

This is extremism and social engineering run amok - nothing more. Queen's should be embarrassed and its alumni should be up in arms at the embarrassing behavior exhibited by an prestigious institution of higher learning.

exhibited by an prestigious institution of higher learning.
Well lets be honest... it IS queens

These students have no idea as to what is "right" and "wrong" - they're intellectual peons, afraid of discourse and dissension and they'll resort to censorship, Orwellian nonsense and anti-intellectualism to quash anything that runs counter to their narrow worldview.

These students have no idea as to what is "right" and "wrong" - they're intellectual peons, afraid of discourse and dissension and they'll resort to censorship, Orwellian nonsense and anti-intellectualism to quash anything that runs counter to their narrow worldview.

But what surprised me at the time was some of the footage I watched on T.V. The students had publicized their protest all over campus and in town. Guelph, as anyone from Ontario knows, is a fairly blue-collar, manufacturing town. So dozens of blue collar guys from the auto parts plants, campus, and everywhere else showed up with video cameras along with the media.

I recall several of the women participants became angry over that. They began covering themselves up, and approaching the photographers, both professional and , um, "amature", and explained that they weren't "comfortable" with being photographed and demanded they stop.

Of course that didn't happen, and most people who watched the events unfold at the time thought it hilarious.

I remember that incident. I get so sick of that kind of shit. Women like that just make all women look bad. "Look at me!" "NO DON'T" .

If you're going to go topless men WILL LOOK and if they happen to have a camera THEY WILL TAKE A PIC! Women who don't understand that about men are idiots. Even a gay guy I know admits that boobs are still nice to look at.

Everyone is just too damn sensitive these days.