The meeting ended with Rambukkana asking that Shepherd send him her lesson plan prior to each class because there had been a breakdown in communication. This was the extent of her punishment, but Rambukkana said that he wasn't sure what else might happen going forward and that he had to discuss the matter with other members of the faculty.
Shepherd released the recording to the National Post , as well as to a local newspaper and another on Canada's west coast. The National Post contacted her immediately, and Christie Blatchford wrote an opinion piece in the Post on 10 November. [19] WLU's president, Deborah MacLatchy, and Professor Nathan Rambukkana published letters of apology on 21 November. [20] [21] [22] MacLatchy said of the meeting that it "does not reflect the values and practices to which Laurier aspires". [20] In his apology, Rambukkana said he should have done more to support Shepherd as her course director and supervisor, and that he had reconsidered some of his positions since the meeting. [20] He wrote that he regretted comparing Peterson to Hitler, which was "untrue and was never my intention". [c]
The university asked a lawyer, Robert Centa, to conduct an independent investigation. [4] [23] His report, which the university did not release, found that Shepherd had not violated university policies and that the meeting had involved "significant overreach". [24] [25] [26] On 18 December 2017 the university president, Deborah MacLatchy, issued a statement saying that there had been "numerous errors in judgement made in the handling of the meeting". The meeting should not have taken place, she wrote, because "[n]o formal complaint, nor informal concern relative to a Laurier policy, was registered about the screening of the video." [6] She concluded that there had been "no wrongdoing on the part of Ms. Shepherd in showing the clip from TVO in her tutorial". [6]
According to MacLatchy, the information about the class had been received via a staff member in the Rainbow Centre "from students who had been on campus talking about it. The policy was not designed to deal with those kind of comments and concerns not actually being raised through the process." [27] In April 2018 she repeated that whatever issue had been raised about the clips, it "was not a complaint as the term is defined in the university’s Gendered and Sexual Violence Policy, which Mr. Centa reviewed in establishing his findings". [4]
In June 2018, Shepherd filed a lawsuit against the university, Rambukkana, Pimlott, Joel, and a graduate student for damages of $3.6 million, claiming "harassment, intentional infliction of nervous shock, negligence, and constructive dismissal". [5] [28] On 18 June that year, Peterson filed a $1.5-million defamation lawsuit against Laurier, Rambukkana, Pimlott, and Joel. His statement of claim alleges that he was compared to Hitler and portrayed as "sexist, misogynist, dangerous and racist" during the November 2017 meeting. [8] [29] In December 2018, Rambukkana and Pimlott filed a third-party claim against Shepherd, alleging she had had control over the recording and should therefore be liable for any damages Peterson suffered as a result of its publication. [30] [31]
In August 2018, Ontario mandated all colleges and universities to develop and comply with a free speech policy. The mandate requires a definition of freedom of speech, a policy based on the Chicago principles, and annual reports to the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario. WLU publishes the reports online. [32]
After the incident, Shepherd gave multiple interviews, including to newspapers and CBC News, [33] as well as on YouTube shows such the Dave Rubin Report [34] [35] and Louder with Crowder , [36] discussing the implications for free speech and academic freedom. She remained active online, gathering over 30,000 Twitter followers by December 2017. [2] She appears in the 2019 documentary No Safe Spaces . [37]
A May 2018 Boston Herald editorial identified Shepherd as one of a group of intellectuals described as the intellectual dark web. [38] On 7 February 2019, the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms announced that Shepherd was joining the Justice Centre as a "Campus Free Speech Fellow". [39]
On 14 July 2019 Shepherd was banned from Twitter due to an exchange with Jessica Yaniv on the social media platform. [40] In their exchange Yaniv said "I heard @realDonaldTrump is building a wall inside of your uterus aka your ‘reproductive abnormality’ hopefully the wall works as intended", to which Shepherd responded "At least I have a uterus, you fat ugly man". [40] Shepherd said she would look to using other platforms, possibly including Thinkspot, a platform proposed by Jordan Peterson. [40] Shepherd's Twitter was reinstated later in July 2019. [41]
Shepherd received the Harry Weldon Canadian Values Award in May 2018 from Canadians for Accountability for her free-speech advocacy. [7]
Shepherd is married and has two children. She is a vegetarian. [2] [9]
As of 2024, Shepherd is a member of the board of the Conservative Party of British Columbia, [42] [43] and also writes for the True North Centre for Public Policy. [44]
But instead I tried to make a point about the need to contextualize difficult material, and drew on the example of playing a speech by Hitler to do it. This was, obviously, a poorly chosen example. I meant to use it to drive home a point about context by saying here was material that would definitely need to be contextualized rather than presented neutrally, and instead I implied that Dr. Peterson is like Hitler, which is untrue and was never my intention. While I disagree strongly with many of Dr. Peterson's academic positions and actions, the tired analogy does him a disservice and was the opposite of useful in our discussion. [20]
Sir Henri Charles Wilfrid Laurier was a Canadian lawyer, statesman, and politician who served as the seventh prime minister of Canada from 1896 to 1911. The first French Canadian prime minister, his 15-year tenure remains the longest uninterrupted term of office among Canadian prime ministers and his nearly 45 years of service in the House of Commons is a record for the House. Laurier is best known for his compromises between English and French Canada.
Martin Luther University College, formerly Waterloo Lutheran Seminary, is a seminary of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada federated with Wilfrid Laurier University, located in Waterloo, Ontario.
Gender-neutral language or gender-inclusive language is language that avoids reference towards a particular sex or gender. In English, this includes use of nouns that are not gender-specific to refer to roles or professions, formation of phrases in a coequal manner, and discontinuing the collective use of male or female terms. For example, the words policeman and stewardess are gender-specific job titles; the corresponding gender-neutral terms are police officer and flight attendant. Other gender-specific terms, such as actor and actress, may be replaced by the originally male term; for example, actor used regardless of gender. Some terms, such as chairman, that contain the component -man but have traditionally been used to refer to persons regardless of sex are now seen by some as gender-specific. An example of forming phrases in a coequal manner would be using husband and wife instead of man and wife. Examples of discontinuing the collective use of terms in English when referring to those with unknown or indeterminate gender as singular they, and using humans, people, or humankind, instead of man or mankind.
Wilfrid Laurier University is a public university in Ontario, Canada, with campuses in Waterloo, Brantford and Milton. The newer Brantford and Milton campuses are not considered satellite campuses of the original Waterloo campus; instead the university describes itself as a "multi-campus multi-community university". The university also operates offices in Kitchener, Toronto, and Yellowknife.
Laurier Brantford is Wilfrid Laurier University's second campus located in Brantford, Ontario. The first and original campus of Wilfrid Laurier University is located in Waterloo, Ontario. Laurier follows a 'multicampus' structure, as it is one university with multiple campuses.
Max Blouw was the president and vice-chancellor of Wilfrid Laurier University. He was inducted into this position on September 1, 2007. After serving two 5 year terms, Blouw stepped down and was replaced by Deborah MacLatchy.
Jordan Bernt Peterson is a Canadian psychologist, author, and media commentator. He began to receive widespread attention in the late 2010s for his views on cultural and political issues. Often characterized as conservative, Peterson has described himself as a classic British liberal and a traditionalist.
Elizabeth Knox is a Canadian retired ice hockey goaltender. She ranks second all-time among Canadian Women's Hockey League (CWHL) goaltenders for games played and won the Clarkson Cup in 2018. An outspoken leader among players, she served as chair of the CWHL Player's Association and was a founding board member of the Professional Women's Hockey Players Association (PWHPA) after the collapse of the CWHL. Knox is currently a member of the executive committee of the Professional Women's Hockey League Players Association (PWHLPA).
The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF) is a Canadian legal advocacy organization specializing in a social conservative approach to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The libertarian organisation has partnered with several right-wing backers in the United States.
Dominique Clément is Professor and Chair of the Department of Sociology at the University of Alberta. He is a member of the Royal Society of Canada's College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists. He is a Canadian historical sociologist who specializes in human rights, the nonprofit sector, and social movements including the use of digital tools for research in the humanities and social sciences. He is an adjunct professor in the Departments of History, Classics & Religion as well as Educational Policy Studies at the University of Alberta and the Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology] at Dalhousie University. He has also been a visiting scholar at the University of Sydney in Australia, Beijing Normal University in China, KU-Leuven University in Belgium, and NUI Galway in Ireland.
An Act to amend the Canadian Human Rights Act and the Criminal Code is a law passed in 2017 by the Parliament of Canada. It was introduced as Bill C-16 of the first session of the 42nd Parliament. The law adds gender expression and gender identity as protected grounds to the Canadian Human Rights Act, and also to the Criminal Code provisions dealing with hate propaganda, incitement to genocide, and aggravating factors in sentencing.
Setsuko Thurlow, born Setsuko Nakamura, is a Japanese–Canadian nuclear disarmament campaigner and Hibakusha who survived the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on 6 August 1945. She is mostly known throughout the world for being a leading figure of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear weapons (ICAN) and to have given the acceptance speech for its reception of the 2017 Nobel peace prize.
No Safe Spaces is a 2019 American documentary film directed by Justin Folk that features commentator Dennis Prager and comedian Adam Carolla talking to college students and faculty about university safe spaces. The documentary also covers free speech controversies occasioned when conservatives are invited to speak in university settings. The film was released in Arizona theaters on October 25, 2019, and was successful enough to have a national release on December 6, 2019. It has received mixed reviews from critics.
Compelled speech is a transmission of expression required by law. A related legal concept is protected speech. Just as freedom of speech protects free expression, in many cases it similarly protects an individual from being required to utter or otherwise express a thought with which that individual disagrees.
Shohini Ghose is a quantum physicist and Professor of Physics and Computer Science at Wilfrid Laurier University. She has served as the president of the Canadian Association of Physicists (2019-2020), co-editor-in-chief of the Canadian Journal of Physics, and the Director of the Laurier Centre for Women in Science. She was named a 2014 TED Fellow and a 2018 TED Senior Fellow. In 2019 she appeared on the Star TV show TED Talks India Nayi Baat hosted by Shah Rukh Khan. In 2017 she was elected to the Royal Society of Canada's College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists. Her book Clues to the Cosmos was released in India in December 2019. In 2020, she was selected as an NSERC Chair for Women in Science and Engineering.
Christine "Chris" Klassen is an undergraduate instructor at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada in the department of Religion and Culture. Klassen's area of focus is on religion, culture and feminism. Klassen has completed comprehensive research in the area of "feminist witchcraft, Wicca and other forms of contemporary paganism."
Preferred gender pronouns are the set of pronouns that an individual wants others to use to reflect that person's own gender identity. In English, when declaring one's chosen pronouns, a person will often state the subject and object pronouns, although sometimes, the possessive pronouns are also stated. The pronouns chosen may include neopronouns such as "ze" and "zir".
Jessica Simpson, commonly known by her former legal name, Jessica Yaniv, is a Canadian transgender activist in British Columbia who is best known for filing at least 15 complaints of discrimination on the basis of gender identity against various beauty salons after they refused to wax her male genitalia. The complaints were filed with the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal in 2018 and 2019. It was the first major case of alleged transgender discrimination in retail in Canada. In 2019, the Tribunal rejected her complaints and ruled Yaniv had racist motives. In following years, Yaniv has gone on to make additional complaints of discrimination, libel and privacy breach.
Deborah Lynn MacLatchy is a Canadian ecotoxicologist and comparative endocrinologist. She is the seventh President and Vice-Chancellor of Wilfrid Laurier University, having formally led the International Office at the University of New Brunswick. She also served as President and Council Member of the Canadian Society of Zoologists and Chair of the Science Directors of the Canadian Rivers Institute. In 2012, MacLatchy was recognized as one of Canada’s Most Powerful Women in a Top 100 list compiled by the Women’s Executive Network.
The exchange with Shepherd began after Yaniv made comments about Shepherd's female genitalia, saying "at least my pussy is tight and not loose after pushing out a 10 pound baby." Shepherd tweeted in response: "This is how men who don't have functional romantic relationships speak. But… I guess that's kinda what you are!" Yaniv then responded with a comment that could have been in reference to Shepherd's septate uterus, a reproductive condition that can cause higher rates of pregnancy loss. "I heard @realDonaldTrump is building a wall inside of your uterus aka your 'reproductive abnormality' hopefully the walk works as intended," Yaniv tweeted. "At least I have a uterus, you fat ugly man," Shepherd then said. "Of course, he thinks reproductive issues are something to be mocked."