Earlier this month, Ryerson University cancelled a panel discussion featuring a right-wing journalist and a couple of conservative academics. There was opposition among the student body and others about the event and the school eventually cited safety concerns as a reason to cancel it. Ironically, the topic of the panel was to be “The Stifling of Free Speech on University Campuses.”

Today in The Conversation Canada, James Turk, the Director of Ryerson’s Centre for Free Expression, says the school made a mistake. In a provocative article, Prof. Turk cites a long and shameful history of universities across North America that have buckled under pressure from both left- and right-wing political groups to suppress free expression – a direct contradiction of their own policies that guarantee free speech.

“Differences of views are the lifeblood of any university and essential to the mission of advancing knowledge and educating students,” writes Prof. Turk.

Elsewhere, Paul Axelrod, Professor Emeritus of Education and History at York University, writes about the current controversy over removing the name of John A. Macdonald from schools.

Prof. Axelrod says an argument could be made that anything named after a figure from Canada’s history “should be renamed because whatever else they contributed to the development of Canada, they were proponents of elitism, imperialism, racism, militarism and sexism.”

But instead of spending the money and political energy into renaming schools, roads and buildings, he says, it would be more prudent to “seriously address Indigenous poverty and unemployment, and improve First Nations’ access to post-secondary education.”

And finally, we present another part of our “Back to School” series – this one by Janette Hughes, Canada Research Chair in Technology and Pedagogy at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology, who writes about so-called makerspaces in Ontario schools that weave passion with digital technologies to teach 21st century skills.

Update from Monday’s newsletter: Thanks to a brain cramp on my part, I highlighted the wrong story about how the European Union has been making major strides in counterterrorism efforts. Please see the excellent piece by Pierre Berthelet of Laval University that I’ve correctly added to the newsletter today.

Regards,