The College Fix

A template for profiting off censorship

Before the University of Waterloo jacked up the security fees it would charge an outside student group to host a controversial event on campus, its own faculty used the scheduled event as a foil for a fundraiser.

In the process, they laid out a roadmap for activists who want to make a tidy profit by shutting down other’s speech.

The Globe and Mail reports that Waterloo’s faculty association raised $12,000 in opposition to the “ethnocide” event featuring “Catholic nationalist” Faith Goldy and University of New Brunswick social scientist Richardo Duchesne.

The Laurier Society for Open Inquiry, a student club that promotes viewpoint diversity at nearby Wilfrid Laurier University, had to cancel the event after Waterloo demanded $28,500 in security fees. The club wasn’t allowed to host it at WLU, where it would be free.

MORE: WLU requires LSOI’s events to pass ‘health and safety’ review

Faculty were disgusted that students might host an unpopular discussion about immigration policy, but they also didn’t want to draw more attention to the event by protesting it – the dreaded “Streisand effect,” professor and organizer Shannon Dea told the newspaper:

Instead, the university’s faculty association began a GoFundMe page with some of the money going to the Collective Movement award. The $1,200 award recognizes an undergraduate student who is contributing to the African, Caribbean and Black communities in Canada, through extracurricular or volunteer involvement.

Supporters of the fundraiser made it clear they wanted to shut down the event by the Laurier Society for Open Inquiry, despite the fact that its scheduling was proving a cash cow for scholarships targeted toward “underrepresented” students.

The Black Association for Student Expression and other groups demanded Waterloo block the event, and BASE was planning a teach-in, according to The Globe and Mail.

Moral of the story: campus groups, try to organize lots of events with white nationalists so that thousands of dollars are raised for multiculturalism lol

— Lindsay Shepherd (@NewWorldHominin) April 27, 2018

MORE: LSOI cancels event after security fee spikes to $28,500

It doesn’t take much imagination to see how students, faculty and outside activists across North America can collaborate to shut down speech they dislike by using this experience as a template:

Anonymously threaten the sponsors of the event and panic the university that physically hosts it, leading the latter to jack up security fees.

On a parallel track, start a fundraiser to “send a message” to the sponsors and university that the community will not tolerate unpopular expression.

Fill your coffers with donations, based on the falsehood that the event will actually happen now that the university’s demanded security fees have priced out the sponsors.

Who knew censorship could be so profitable?

Read the article.

MORE: Teaching assistant says they aren’t supposed to promote ‘critical thinking’

IMAGE: Laurier Society for Open Inquiry

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