Mark Mercer: SMU hooligans should have been removed
The Halifax Chronicle-Herald interviews Saint Mary’s University philosophy professor Mark Mercer about last week’s disruption of a pro-life presentation. In Dr Mercer’s view, the shouters who prevented Jojo Ruba from speaking should have been removed from the hall.
“I don’t want to defend what he said as non-hate speech because I think that’s irrelevant,” Mark Mercer said Wednesday. “Even if he was saying ‘Black people suck,’ people who shout him down should be carried away.”
[…]
“I think that there ought not to be any restrictions on hate speech,” Mr. Mercer said. “It should be no business of the state that people express hateful emotions.“That said . . . I don’t think he was saying anything hateful — it might be ludicrous (but not hateful).”
An administration official makes a breathtakingly pathetic attempt to whitewash the events of last Thursday evening.
Chuck Bridges, vice-president of external affairs at Saint Mary’s, said the university did let the presentation continue, it just took place at the nearby church instead.
“It’s important to clarify . . . that the lecture was not shut down,” he said Wednesday.
“When we saw the level of emotional engagement from those on both sides of the discussion, we felt it better that rather than having people face disciplinary action, that we would defuse the situation by allowing a bit of a cooling off and moving it to another location a building away,” he said.
“So those who were keenly interested in hearing that side of the discussion, they had that opportunity.”
Mr Bridges, in case you missed it, SMU allowed a small band of Brown Shirts to dictate who is and is not permitted to speak on your campus. Aren’t you even a little concerned about that?
And you did not “defuse” the situation, you exacerbated it. What do you think will happen the next time a controversial speaker comes to SMU? A precedent has been set that the university will come to regret.
This morning’s Chronicle-Herald also publishes five letters on the disruption, all critical of the hooligans and/or the university’s decision to allow noisy mobs to censor what may be said on campus.