Margaret Wente: It Wasn’t My Cancelation That Bothered Me. It Was the Cowardice of Those Who Let It Happen

Many years ago, when it cost less than a buck, I read the Globe and Mail on a fairly regular basis, which meant reading op ed columns by Margaret Wente. Mostly I found Ms. Wente unduly liberal, although it was clear that she had a good mind and presented many good arguments. Today, however, as Ms. Wente relates below, being a decent, open-minded, liberal intent on examining issues in all their dimensions is unacceptable to campus revolutionaries and hence, apparently to campus administrators of whom, seemingly most, are morally bankrupt whimps who cave on intimidation by Marxist and revolutionary campus radicals.

It doesn’t take much to get cancelled these days. Last month, my turn came around. The experience was unpleasant, but also completely ludicrous. And I learned a lot. I learned how easily an institution will cave to a mob. I learned how quickly the authorities will run for cover, notwithstanding the lip service they may pay to principles of free speech.

After all, they’re terrified. They’re afraid that if they don’t beg forgiveness and promise to do better, they’ll be next at the guillotine.

I was cancelled by one of Canada’s quainter institutions, a University of Toronto graduate residential school called Massey College. Few people outside Canadian academia have heard of it. But the cultural revolution has entered its mass-spectacle Reign of Terror phase, and so my story made news across Canada. I was depicted as a racist, anti-feminist heretic whose mere presence inside Massey’s halls would have presented a threat to students.