Critical Thinkers or Captive Audience?

Submitted by dds (Canada), Apr 17, 2006 at 15:32

Just a sec', while I wring out the handkerchief after sobbing my way through Laura Bier's plight. That's better. If Prof. Bier wants to make a political statement, she's living in a land where she has every right to do so. She's also living in a land where she has every responsibility to see to it that others have that same right -- even if they oppose her view. But rather than do it to a group of impressionable young people, she should do what so many others do: hire a hall, publish a book, go on the talk-show circuit ... and be prepared to take her lumps. But she shouldn't whine about "stifling healthy debate on campus" until she realizes two important factors in a debate: (1) you don't score points with cheap ad hominem arguments and (2) you can't debate without an opponent.

On another topic -- the "free ride" Islam gets in many circles, Montreal's McGill University is facing a "human rights" complaint from Muslim students demanding a "proper" prayer room on campus. The administration says it's not going to put out money to accommodate a single religion, and the Christian chapel and Jewish meeting place on campus are paid-for privately. But the Muslims claim their rights are being violated, and a CBC reporter actually speculated that the Human Rights Commission would "probably" find in their favour.

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