Reflectorial: A presidential pardon
On March 22, John Carpay wrote an opinion column for the Calgary Herald condemning Mount Royal University’s administration for not supporting free speech and encouraged President David Docherty to “simply apologize to Nicholas for the shameful behaviour of MRU staff.”
This condemnation came after, according to Carpay’s column, Nicholas McLeod was allegedly attacked by security guards for handing out pro-life literature on campus.
Docherty responded with his own column in the Herald on March 30, stating that it is “unfortunate that unproven allegations were presented as facts” and used this issue to defend free speech on MRU’s campus. While the details of what actually happened with McLeod remain unclear, Docherty’s opinion that free speech is alive and well at Mount Royal is a factual one. Oh yeah, and he used this campus paper to prove his point!
We are not everyone’s cup of tea. The Reflector routinely receives mail that feels rim jobs and other sexual acts should not be in a printed publication that distributes 8,000 copies throughout the city.
Docherty himself stated in his column that he “found some of the content offensive” in the newspaper. However, his next assertion is the more important one: “What I find more offensive, however, is the thought that I, as university president, could somehow censor and stop it from being published.”
This viewpoint of free speech is one that the ’flec proudly shares with our president — whose administration we have questioned and criticized in the past.
Docherty said MRU has a “policy that allows people to respond and complain about material they deem offensive. That’s what free speech is all about, the debate and the opportunity to agree, disagree or agree to disagree.”
As your campus paper, we have, for over 50 years, attempted to provide you with a forum of free speech. For society to move forward, we need to be able to build consensus by peaceful means.
This means that this paper intends to continue to agree, disagree, piss you off, make you laugh, teach you new things and learn from the debate with you, our readers. Because, as Mr. Docherty said, that’s what free speech is all about.
—The Reflector Staff
