The Sandor Report

If you haven’t read about it yet , Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario has recently suspended a history professor in response to allegations that he used racist language in the classroom.    In the university’s defense, the professor does not deny that he used phrases such as “japs”, “towelheads.   However, in the professor’s defense, the racial slurs were quotes from books and articles about racism in the post-colonial era.   Oh, and the course in question was one on post-colonial history.   Perhaps one question that stands is whether a course on post-colonial history could be taught without discussion and inclusion of racial slurs.   The answer clearly is ‘yes’.   A better question however is whether such a course ought to omit such discussion.   The answer as far as I am concerned is an emphatic and resounding ‘absolutely not’.    Canada, 1918: The Government of Canada issues a set fee that all Chinese immigrants must pay t...

The answer to this article’s title question could simply be “because I live in Canada where our government is NOT pursuing internet censorship” or “because I can use Wikipedia in French”.  However, as a result of pages like Wikipedia (let’s be honest, it’s only Wikipedia that anybody cares about) ironically deciding to restrict access to their content, I’ve spent a good portion of my time today reading comments from Canadians upset that SOPA will somehow impose Orwellian censorship on their lives.  It seems that we have decided to not just ignore the nonsense coming up from the US and so I feel a more through explanation of why SOPA is nothing to get all worked up about. Don't you dare press that button! SOPA is an acronym that I – along with countless others – have been avoiding on the internet for weeks.  It stands for the “Stop Online Piracy Act” that is being placed before the US government in an attempt to control what Americans are able to access on the internet...