More on Queen's University's Gestapo/KGB Tactics

Here's an editorial in the National Post regarding Queen's University's decision to employ secret thought police on its campus.  An excerpt (but read the whole thing, as they say):

The six students who staff the "Intergroup Dialogue" program, (academic vice president) Mr. (Patrick) Deane declared in his e-mail blast, "have been trained to serve their peers as facilitators in difficult or sensitive discussions." Their goal: "To foster amongst students, in their ordinary interactions, a spirit of mutual respect and understanding, especially where they might potentially be divided by differences of racial identity, religious commitment, sexual orientation or ethnicity."

"The program is founded on respect," he adds, "which means that student facilitators are explicitly not intended or allowed to foist their views upon others. Indeed, they are expected to foster a safe environment in which all students can speak with assurance ... Freedom of speech and thought is impossible without respect, consideration and a commitment to mutual understanding."

Perhaps Mr. Deane needs a "facilitator" of his own to help him understand why his words immediately strike so many as creepy and totalitarian. Indeed, one sentence -- "Freedom of speech and thought is impossible without respect, consideration and a commitment to mutual understanding" -- is exactly the sort of pro-forma boilerplate that inevitably gets sputtered out by human rights commissioners before they bring the boom down on some poor conservative-minded fellow who had the temerity to speak his views.

Via John Palmer

Comments

[kerrjac]

Attempts to control the distribution of knowledge are pretty analogous to attempts to control the distribution of wealth. They both fail for the same reasons as well.