Thought Control Forces Lose One: Professor Tony Hall Returns to U of Lethbridge
On November 22, we got good news. Professor Tony Hall of the University of Lethbridge was back in the classroom. Changes in provincial law — yes, Rachel Notley has managed to do one thing right — forced the university to cancel its suspension and BANNING from, campus of Professor Hall. He had criticized Zionism and insisted that there should be open debate on the holocaust. B’nai Brith, one of Canada’s most strident anti-free speech group, howled and Tony Hall, a tenured professor, was banned from campus last year and faces charges before the Alberta Human Rights Commission. CAFE wrote a number of letters supporting him and I know many of you did too.
The Canadian Press (November 22, 2017) reported: “A professor accused of espousing anti-Semitic views has been reinstated at the University of Lethbridge in Alberta. The university confirmed in an e-mail Thursday that Anthony Hall is no longer suspended, but wouldn’t comment further. … Hall, a tenured professor who has taught Native American studies, liberal education and globalization over his 26 years at the university, was suspended in October 2016 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. He maintains the issue is academic freedom and that he should be allowed to promote his work as he sees fit.”
B’nai Brith threw a hissy fit in an extravagant press release: ” B’nai Brith Canada is outraged that Professor Anthony Hall has returned to work at the University of Lethbridge, after he was suspended for promoting antisemitism in October of 2016. Hall’s return was facilitated by Alberta Premier Rachel Notley’s NDP Government, which passed two bills in mid-2017 that strengthened the position of Hall’s faculty association. In August, the Government even took the rare step of launching a direct legal intervention that aided Hall, and eventually prompted a labour arbitrator to order him back to work in November. …