It has become clear that the radical left in Canada is as committed to violence as groups like Diagonal—the ultimate boogieman of right-wing racist violence. The main difference is that the radical left academics are in the open, and their disturbing manifestations of presence are more tolerated.
The pro-Palestinian protests across Canada, along with the occupation of several university campuses, have been openly racist, from protestors yelling “Free, free, Palestine” and “Jews go back to Europe” to “Intifada, intifada, long live the intifada.” If that was not disturbing enough, during the encampment, University of Toronto security questioned individuals trying to enter the ‘occupation zone’ if they were Jewish. Behind them are increasingly loud voices of moral support, disturbingly coming from within Canadian academia.
There’s been much debate around free speech and censorship in Canada. Most famous was the Lindsay Shepherd censorship case, in which the young Wilfred Laurier University teaching assistant was reprimanded by supervising professor Nathan Rambukkana in a closed meeting for playing a TV Ontario clip to her class that featured then-University of Toronto professor Jordan Peterson debating the issue of mandatory pronoun usage.
Peterson faced censorship over pronoun laws in Canada and continues to fight a legal battle over mandatory retraining for political statements he had made online. Like many on the Conservative side of the spectrum in Canada, Peterson and Shepherd are free-speech absolutists who fiercely believe words cannot hurt people.
However, the standard argument of the academic left is that words can be violent, both in the emotional impact they have on those who hear them and those who may be moved to action by hearing said words—even if they are not direct incitement. As a result, learning academics often call for the censuring and shutting down of words that can be “violent.”
Anyone who spent time on a Canadian university campus will be familiar with Karl Popper’s “paradox of tolerance.” It is often cited as an example of how, if intolerance is permitted, it will take over and kill tolerance in societies. Citing Nazi Germany as an example, the Austrian-Anglo academic and social commentator made a compelling point, but what about left-wing extremists? Is there no paradox from what we can tolerate with them?
It is interesting that one of the University of Ottawa’s noisiest professors, Amir Attaran, a professor in the Faculties of Law and the School of Epidemiology, often supports the political far left and would not pass the paradox of tolerance test.
Attaran’s X page (formerly Twitter) is an overflowing sink of hatefulness, swearing, and negativity that is a bit too much. Still, he crossed a rubicon this week when he wished for the assassination of the Prime Minister of Israel and the former president of the United States and current Republican candidate for president Donald Trump, saying, “I’d like to see the Secret Service fail again.” Attaran also criticized the fact that the prime minister didn’t call the would-be assassin of Donald Trump, who was a young white male, a terrorist but did assign that label to the 2014 Parliament Hill shooter, Michael Zehaf-Bibeau. His conclusion: the most progressive prime minister in Canada’s history is a racist. Western elected officials and security services claim that radicalization and lone wolf-style attacks are on the increase and are being pushed by online radicalization. Why is a university professor playing a role in pouring fuel on the proverbial flame?
More than his calls for the deaths of Netanyahu and Trump, Attaran is bigoted, having made prejudicial statements about Québecois Canadians in the past that were so insensitive the prime minister felt the need to address them. He’s also called the Royal Canadian Mounted Police the Royal Mounted Pigs. He incessantly calls the Premier of Ontario names, including making fun of his weight, and has called him a “dumb fuck”. He said, “Pierre Poilievre wants to kill people” because he disagrees with a safe supply of drugs. He bashed Alberta, saying, “It’s a place where people slay animals just for a good time,” referencing the Calgary stampede.
Perhaps his 14.2k followers are attracted to his ‘funny’ language or ironic twists on words. However, in a society where political violence is becoming normal, this strikes as more than a little suggestive.
The University of Ottawa doesn’t appear bothered by his bashing of Canadian provinces, which students no doubt from Quebec and Alberta attend, nor do they seem concerned that a member of their staff member degrades the word racism by accusing people who are simply not racist.
When an educated person in a position of power normalizes political violence, bullying, and name-calling by wishing for the death of two heads of state in the open, among other statements, one has to wonder where the University of Ottawa administration is.
Since October 7, 2023, Canadian universities have shown themselves as hotbeds of extremist thought; as long it is within the parameters of being anti-western and antisemitic, it’s tolerated, and because of this, Attaran is tolerated. Would this behaviour be permitted if he called for the deaths of Indigenous leaders or, for that matter, the leaders of any other minority group?
Despite being on opposite ends of the spectrum, if Amir Attaran sat down at a table with Neo Nazis, they’d have a lot in common: wanting the death of the head of state of Israel, language prejudice against minority Canadians, and a generally aggressive outlook that manifests in treating those who disagree with him as cretins.
A person who wishes on a public forum for the death of two world leaders and who carelessly preaches hate is not the moral voice for the interpretation of the law in Canada, nor should he be anywhere near students.
Then again, only in Canada could a teaching assistant be criticized for playing a Jordan Peterson video, but a professor who makes nearly $207k a year be allowed to unabashedly make discriminatory statements against other Canadians and Israelis and call for the deaths of world leaders.
If leftist speech logic dictates that words can hurt, then Attaran is doing a lot of damage. As a private citizen, he is entitled to his right to do so, but as a public figure whose salary is paid by the taxpayers of Ontario, the University of Ottawa needs to condemn his left-wing extremism.
