Prairie Dog
Friday, June 10, 2011
Excerpt:
The decision to censor Dr. Emily Eaton’s discussion about Palestine and global economic sanctions is truly disappointing and one that I was not able to reconcile my personal beliefs with. We live in what is supposed to be a Democratic society and the fact that we are unable and unwilling to allow a University Professor to discuss course content about a serious global issue is in direct conflict with our basic rights. When a free society half way around the world can not support a half an hour discussion, it is not surprising that tragic situations like what is occurring in Palestine exist.
Ouch. More after the jump.
I don’t know what happened here. It’s troubling that a business organization would presume to tell a university professor what she can and cannot talk about. It’s also bad, bad PR. When an organization censors a prof, the academic community will punch it in the brain. Tenured academics tend to take their freedom of speech very, very seriously.
I guarantee there are people saying, ‘where does Regina Downtown they think we’re living? Soviet Russia? We don’t censor university professors in Canada. What idiots!’ I don’t think this is what Regina’s business community wants.
Someone made a bad call. This decision needs to be reversed and apologized for.
Here’s McDonald’s statement, unedited.
I was hired to activate the Downtown area, to help build community and to plan a series of exciting events that would bring people downtown. Over the past ten years I have lived, worked and played downtown and was very eager to help plan the types of events that would engage my fellow citizens and better the downtown area. The Profs in the Park series was a wonderful initiative that would have added a much desired educational component to the Victoria Park Program. Topics ranged from Native Plant Gardening to Homelessness and offered us all an excellent opportunity to learn something in a beautiful public space.
The decision to censor Dr. Emily Eaton’s discussion about Palestine and global economic sanctions is truly disappointing and one that I was not able to reconcile my personal beliefs with. We live in what is supposed to be a Democratic society and the fact that we are unable and unwilling to allow a University Professor to discuss course content about a serious global issue is in direct conflict with our basic rights. When a free society half way around the world can not support a half an hour discussion, it is not surprising that tragic situations like what is occurring in Palestine exist.
My decision to leave the Regina Downtown BID was admittedly not easy to do because of the fact that I passionately agree with the original intent behind the Victoria Park Program and the efforts to make it an active public space, however I can not condone the decisions made to censor a topic that I believe has every right to be discussed. The idea that community can be created by a Business Improvement District is a fallacy. As much as the public perception of downtown would have been improved by the programming that was arranged for this summer, the RDBID did little, outside of hiring me, to facilitate and support these events.
The true credit belongs to all of those who offered to volunteer their time and services in support of the community. I truly appreciate the willingness of all those involved, the Yogis, Professors, artists, musicians and community members that stepped forward to support this program and I hope that this unfortunate decision regarding Dr. Emily Eaton hasn’t deterred anyone from wanting to help make our community stronger. I still urge everyone, as active, engaged citizens to head out, make use of the park, make art, music, dance and have a great time in every public space because that is why they exist. They belong to us and, as such, it is up to us to start building our own community with or without civic support.
- Neil McDonald
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