A NEED FOR EDUCATION AND DIALOGUE<\/strong><\/p>\nZo\u00eb Wright is a fifth year student at Mount Allison and a Two-Spirit Indigenous person.<\/p>\n
Wright says that after reading Azar\u2019s blog for the first time they were disappointed, but not surprised. Wright\u2019s previous experience with Azar had already left them feeling unwelcome in the professor\u2019s class.<\/p>\n
In Wright\u2019s first year, they took a class with Dr. Azar, and approached the professor to touch base about accommodations they had arranged through the Meighen Centre.<\/p>\n
\u201cI went up after one of the lectures to just introduce myself,\u201d says Wright. \u201cTo put a face to a name that you\u2019d be hearing. I mentioned that I was Two-Spirit, and I would prefer her using they\/them pronouns when addressing me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHer response, straight to my face was, \u2018No, I don\u2019t believe in other identities,\u2019\u201d recalls Wright.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was really jarring. And it actually is a big factor for why I didn\u2019t publicly come out until several years later,\u201d says Wright.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was someone who I was supposed to respect in a classroom environment,\u201d says Wright. \u201cAnd I was really confused, because I wasn\u2019t sure how I was supposed to continue this class, and respect and learn from someone who didn\u2019t respect me back.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wright says they haven\u2019t encountered a similar attitude throughout the rest of their time at Mount Allison, and while they hadn\u2019t reported the incident at the time, they have since the blog came to light.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know a lot of students who might be in a position similar to how I was when I was affected,\u201d says Wright. \u201cSo I felt like speaking out now and reporting it was really important to give a voice to those who can\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wright says the situation surrounding Azar calls for education and further dialogue on campus.<\/p>\n
In addition to a need for sensitivity training, Wright also sees an opportunity, \u201cto open a dialogue between people who have been affected by Dr. Azar\u2019s words, but also between people who hold the same views as Dr. Azar.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wright points out that Azar\u2019s blog is anonymous. Though the professor shared her first name and some personal details, it was not listed under her full name and did not reference her position at Mount Allison.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s clear that she didn\u2019t feel respected enough or have enough trust in her peers and her colleagues to speak out about this in person,\u201d says Wright, \u201cand I think that is just as much of a problem as the people who are affected by her words.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI think this is a really great opportunity to open a dialogue into making Mount Allison a more accepting space for everybody to voice their opinions, but also feel safe.\u201d<\/p>\n
HARMFUL IMPLICATIONS FROM OPINIONS EXPRESSED ON BLOG<\/strong><\/p>\nHelen Yao is a third year Mount Allison student, and a member of Divest MtA, a group of students working to convince university administration to direct its endowment funds away from investing in fossil fuel companies.<\/p>\n
Yao is mentioned by name in Azar\u2019s blog, in response to coverage of Divest MtA in the Argosy. Azar has written many a blog post in opposition to the divestment movement, and casting doubts on the \u201capocalyptic view\/prediction\u201d coming out of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.<\/p>\n
Yao didn\u2019t discover that she was named in Azar\u2019s blog until this week, when parts of it started to circulate on social media. Yao says Azar appears to not believe generally accepted science on climate change, and has misunderstood and mis-framed aspects of it. But Yao sees a bigger patter that concerns her.<\/p>\n
\u201cA prevalent theme that appears in the blog is that she seems to be very committed to denying the existence of structural inequality,\u201d says Yao. \u201cAnd I think she justifies it most of the time with personal anecdotes, and her personal opinions\u2026 She utilizes these cases to somehow make generalizations about everyone\u2019s lived experiences.\u201d<\/p>\n
The most-quoted example of this is a blog post in which Azar flatly denies the existence of racism in New Brunswick, and uses prominent activist Husoni Raymond as an example. Because Raymond, one of the founders of Black Lives Matter Fredericton, has been honoured (apparently \u201clavishly\u201d, as writer Jonathan Kay recently put it in a column in the National Post) by his alma mater St. Thomas University, Azar questions his assertion that racism exists at all in the province. She writes:<\/p>\n
\u201cIf NB is as racist as you are claiming, would one of its prestigious universities be honouring you like that\u00a0??\u201d<\/p>\n
Yao says she found this type of fallacy at play Azar\u2019s blog more worrisome than her criticisms of the Divest movement.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think her attacks on me are very much different from her attacks on some other people,\u201d says Yao.<\/p>\n
Azar\u2019s criticisms of Yao tend to focus on her being misguided or brainwashed, says Yao. \u201cBut when it comes to her attacks on Black and Indigenous people, for example, that is based on the fact that their realities somehow aren\u2019t real.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yao also took a first year course from Azar, but doesn\u2019t recall problematic behaviour from the professor. \u201cShe didn\u2019t really express her personal opinions that much in her teaching of an introductory course,\u201d says Yao. \u201cHowever, I don\u2019t think that means that these opinions don\u2019t have harmful implications when it comes to her practices and her teaching.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a [psychology] professional, she should be even more cognizant of the fact that each individual operates within their unique material and emotional reality,\u201d says Yao. \u201cAnd be very careful about making generalized statements. especially ones that directly referred to her colleagues or her former students. And she should really be weighing the impact of her statements before she makes certain claims.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yao says the incident makes her question Azar\u2019s qualifications to teach about topics like the social determinants of health.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think this just demonstrates an inability to empathize with people and an inability to acknowledge the reality of what is going on, and an inability to acknowledge scientific evidence,\u201d says Yao.<\/p>\n
Divest MtA has joined the Black Students Union in a call to have Azar removed from her teaching position, saying that freedom of speech doesn\u2019t mean freedom from consequences.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of the debate on campus, unfortunately, has devolved into well, she has a fundamental freedom of speech. She has the ability to express our opinions and her free thoughts. So why are we essentially censoring her?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe very easy response to that is obviously, No, no one is calling for censorship. No one is saying that she doesn\u2019t have the right to these opinions and thoughts. But that doesn\u2019t absolve her from consequences. Especially for someone who is supposed to be more qualified and who holds a position of power.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Mount Allison Black Students\u2019 Union and other campus groups are calling for the removal of Dr. Rima Azar from her teaching position in the Mount Allison psychology department. This week, a personal blog Azar started in July 2019 came to the attention of the Mount Allison community, and students have been expressing their disappointment…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":26810,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[57,221],"tags":[],"radio":[227],"origine":[274,275,277],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42866"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42866"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42866\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42866"},{"taxonomy":"radio","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/radio?post=42866"},{"taxonomy":"origine","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/origine?post=42866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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