University of Lethbridge Rats Out Prof. Hall to Alberta Human Rights Commission & Suspends Him With Pay
On January 11, dissident University of Lethbridge professor, Tony Hall, who had been suspended without pay since early October, for his views critical of Israel widely circulated on the Internet, has now been suspended with pay, but his own university is filing a complaint with the Alberta Human Rights Commission — a mortal enemy of free speech. If found guilty by a body with loosey-goosey rules of evidence or threshholds for guilt, Prof. Hall could then, in the university’s view be legitimately fired, thus doing an end-run around academic freedom.
s: “
Professor Hall reports: “”This new communication is dated Dec. 19 but it was delivered to my door yesterday[ Is the mail really THAT slow? PF]
One of the agendas of Dr. Mahon and those behind them is to overthrow the authority of the collective agreement between faculty and administration (Handbook) by seeming to leave it to the Alberta Human Rights Board to justify my suspension outside the Handbook provisions. A quick way to describe the plan would be to identify it with the objective of union busting.
Here’s the provision at issue from the Alberta Post-Secondary Learning Act, 2003
(3) Subject to any existing agreement, a president may, in the president’s discretion, suspend from duty and privileges any member of the academic staff at the university and shall forthwith report the president’s action and the reasons for it 2003 Section 23 Chapter P-19.5 POST-SECONDARY LEARNING ACT 21 (a) to the board, and (b) to the executive committee of the general faculties council. 2003 cP-19.5 s22;2008 c25
To some it seems obvious that the “existing agreements” that the Handbook and tenure are “existing agreements” that limit presidential powers to “suspend from duty and privileges any member of the academic staff at the university.”
The Canadian Press (January 16, 2017) reported: “The University of Lethbridge says it is lodging a complaint with the Alberta Human Rights Commission about a
longtime professor accused of espousing anti-Semitic views.
Anthony Hall was suspended without pay in October following comments he made in online articles and videos suggesting there was a Zionist connection to the 9/11 attacks and that the events of the Holocaust should be up for debate.”
Thus, it’s quite clear that Prof. Hall’s crime is suggesting an Israeli connection to 9/11 and saying that the so-called holocaust should be debatable. And shouldn’t it?
The Canadian Press report continues: “‘From the findings of that assessment, the board has decided to proceed with a complaint to the Alberta Human Rights Commission against Dr. Hall for publishing statements, alone and in collaboration with others, that could be considered hateful, contemptuous and discriminatory,’ it said in a statement Monday.” Shockingly, the university assails academic freedom and seeks to get a kangaroo court to do its dirty work.
Prof. Hall is receiving some academic support: “Hall said the complaint is a way for administration to manoeuvre around its collective agreement with faculty.
‘It represents an enormous effort to change the landscape of higher education in Canada,’ he said. ‘I was ripped form the classroom mid-term in October and my students were deprived of the course they chose and the professor they chose.’
Both the University of Lethbridge Faculty Association and the Canadian Association of University Teachers criticized Hall’s suspension before any official finding of wrongdoing.”
Not surprisingly, the League for Human Rights (but not free speech) of B’nai Brith, Professor Hall’s chief tormenter, whose complaints led to his present persecution, is delighted: “Amanda Hohmann with B’nai Brith Canada said she’s pleased with how the university has handled the situation and says the reinstatement of Hall’s pay isn’t a vindication. Hohmann said Hall’s appearance earlier this month on a radio show posted on Stormfront — a white nationalist website that describes itself as a “community of racial realists and idealists” — shows the complaint is not an assault on the institution of tenure, as Hall argues, but a defence of human rights.
‘Instead of being repentant or apologizing for his behaviour, he’s doubled down and he’s gone even further down the rabbit hole of anti-Semitism,’ said Hohmann.”
So, silencing Professor Hall is “defending human rights”?
the censors have gone mad!
One wonders whether the Knights of Columbus could get a university to fire a professor who took issue with Catholic doctrine? Didn’t think so!
Paul Fromm
Director
CANADIAN ASSOCIATION FOR FREE EXPRESSION
