Acadia University fired a tenured professor. Still not much hard information to go on. But from the public documents, those of us to don’t know the professor or the university atmosphere personally can glean four hypotheses. He was fired because:
1. His positions are ideologically wrong, according to his campus enemies.
2. His manner of advocating those positions was wrong.
3. His in-class time allocation on those positions was wrong.
4. His views run afoul of federal government discrimination and harassment laws.
1. is Professor Janice Fiamengo’s position and supported by this petition demanding his removal solely for his views. In this case, it’s bad political correctness overriding academic freedom.
2. is suggested by this CBC report: A university official communicated to Mehta “”These concerns relate to the *manner* in which you are expressing views …” (emphasis added). So maybe he was obnoxious or otherwise a jerk.
3. is suggested by this phrase “time that you are spending on these issues in the classroom,” also from the CBC report. So maybe he is sometimes neglecting his professional responsibilities by talking about non-psychology-related issues he wasn’t hired to teach.
4. is suggested by “The university has a legal responsibility to provide an environment free from discrimination, sexual harassment and personal harassment.” In this case, the university administration fears government power or agrees that government statutes override academic freedom.
Apparently all of the official information is still under wraps, so we’re only able to speculate.
So… do I understand correctly, that the suspected reasons for his firing have neither anything to do with whether or not what he said is true nor with even having had any discussion on whether or not his comments might have factual and evidential backing in reality –
Whether or not he spoke truths seems irrelevant… ?
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Mehta is a relative light weight. He tries to be provocative and he is but he lacks judgement. I think his case should be looked at with the California professor Randa jarrar case who was equally provocative, a light weight ideologue but protected boy virtual absaloute US view of free speech and the impregnability of tenure. Wheras Canada far less of both.
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