Lawyer John Carpay in the Calgary Herald on the free speech battle of pro-lifers at the University of Calgary on an important and overlooked aspect of this issue: the status of the university as a public institution:
The U of C tells Alberta taxpayers that it is “a place of education and scholarly inquiry” with a mission “to seek truth and disseminate knowledge.”
On the basis of this claim, the U of C receives more than $600 million from taxpayers each year. Yet this same university suddenly claims to be “private” when bullying and intimidating its own students for peacefully expressing their views.
If the U of C wishes to censor speech it considers offensive, it should become truly private and turn down the hundreds of millions of dollars it receives from Alberta taxpayers for the express purpose of fostering ideas and debate.
We interviewed Carpay in the September issue of The Inteirm about the battle for free speech for pro-life students at the University of Calgary.
