Support Free Speech on Campus
“I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” -Voltaire famouusly owns this. But he probably stole it.
Note: This was originally written on Sept. 13, 2024 and revised on July 20, 2025. As far as I’m concerned, the cause of free speech is moot now. I was fired on July 7, 2025, for calling Hamas Nazis.
On Free Speech, Cowardice, and Clicking a Damn Button
All you need to do is enter your email — yes, a real one — and your first and last name. You can hide it afterwards if you like, but it must be valid. That’s it. That’s the entire Herculean effort required to stand for something that once mattered: speech without permission.
No, your action alone may not tip the scales of history. But the point was never that. The point is to take a stand because it is right, not because it is convenient or guaranteed to succeed.
No emails will be shared. No spam will follow. What will follow — if you remain silent — is more silence, sanctioned and policed.
And if no one shares this? Then it dies here. Quietly. Like a censored idea.
My subscriber base is about 1,000 — not enough to storm the Bastille, but enough, perhaps, to light a signal. (To the student who mocked me when I was 14 and I said, “Give me a year,” well — bitter laugh incoming — here we are.)
If you’re too disinterested, too disengaged, or worse — if you’re muttering, “I’m afraid of what my friends might think if I share this” — then you are the very bloodstream of the problem.
Previous generations crossed oceans and sent sons into gunfire for the right to think and speak freely. Today’s generation trembles at the thought of a dropped follower or a cold stare at brunch. They wilt under the imagined pressure of an Instagram comment. Freedom died not with a bang, but with a scroll.
Let’s be clear: this isn’t just about saving Paul Finlayson’s job, though that would be decent enough. He will likely be fired, regardless, because he committed the unforgivable act of saying something true: he stood with Israel and said Hamas are terrorists.
For this, he upset the feelings of a campus mob, a mob that now includes a university vice-president. Oh no — feelings. The modern Inquisition doesn’t use fire; it uses offence.
The hypocrisy is thick enough to trowel: Finlayson’s accuser has public RateMyProfessor comments accusing him of denigrating Jews in class. His social media — including LinkedIn — is plastered with anti-Semitic bile, post after post.
So, were his feelings ever examined? Was he suspended, defamed, interrogated, or dismissed? Of course not. Not a flicker of consequence. His LinkedIn audience now swells past 66,000 followers — impressively high for a professor from a school most people couldn’t find on a map.
And me? Sitting at 600. Quite content with it, too. Being a nobody frees you up for reading.
This is still — and maddeningly — about the claim that Hamas are Nazis. A molehill? No, it’s a mountain range, forged from cowardice, hypocrisy, and bureaucratic panic. The original conversation, between Finlayson and a stranger in Southeast Asia, has vanished. There is no evidence—just a digital mob, howling for punishment and allergic to facts.
And what have the three institutions done — Guelph, Humber, Guelph-Humber — those who should be the grown-ups in the room?
They joined the mob.
Staff. Managers. Deans. All nodding along, hounding a man for saying what everyone with a moral compass already knows. That terrorism is terrorism, no matter how academically footnoted.
His unions? CUPE 3913 and OPSEU 562? A comedy of irrelevance. One is being sued for anti-Semitism, the other is loudly declaring its hatred of Israel at union meetings — and yet they claim no bias.
For ten months, they’ve refused to meet with him. Not a call. Not a whisper. They’ve ghosted the man they’re paid to defend.
So now it is Finlayson versus three institutions, armed with nothing but facts, integrity, and a handful of friends, family, and strangers — many of them Jewish, as it happens, which is ironic considering that’s who these institutions so blithely ignore in the name of “equity.”
Click the button. Say something. If not because it will change the world, then because remaining silent guarantees that nothing will. This isn’t about Finlayson anymore. It’s about whether you still believe speech is worth defending — or whether you’ve already been trained to shut up and scroll. Let us begin, if we must, with a proposition so grotesquely overdue it ought to be tattooed on the forehead of every university vice-provost: the word “academic” should be a pejorative.
Not mildly unflattering—no, not the sort of term you mutter after a traffic ticket or cold soup—but a full-throated insult, an epithet fit for the grimiest corners of bureaucratic failure.
And nowhere is this better illustrated than in the case of Paul Finlayson, who, after 15 years of teaching, was fired without severance by the University of Guelph, not for misconduct, incompetence, or scandal, but for calling Hamas Nazis in a LinkedIn thread.
He said he stood with Israel. A stranger on the internet didn’t like it. A radical, openly anti-Semitic professor complained. That was enough.
And with that, Finlayson was gone.
No process. No hearing. No defence. Just hurt feelings.
This is all it takes now. Because in the newer moral lexicon, harm is no longer something inflicted through action or even intention. Harm is whatever makes someone feel emotionally “unsafe.”
Gone is the idea that hate speech is incitement to violence. Now it’s anything unwanted that stirs discomfort, that fails to flatter a group’s sense of itself. What does “emotionally unsafe” even mean, beyond “I didn’t like what you said”?
The Double Standard of Institutional Hypocrisy
Finlayson’s accuser—whose public record includes calling Jews “filth,” celebrating October 7, and referring to Jews as “subhuman”—remains fully employed and entirely unbothered. Another faculty member, Professor Greg Shupak, has gone further, saying on a podcast that Jews “deserved” October 7. Still on the payroll. Still untouchable.
But, say Hamas are Nazis?
That’s your career. Done.
The so-called Human Rights Departments at Guelph and Humber are not protectors of justice. They are instruments of ideological conformity, dripping in irony. They are not concerned with fairness. They are management’s disciplinary wing, armed with euphemisms and weaponised morality.
Their record is clear:
Attack Jews? Enjoy your tenure.
Offend a Muslim? Prepare for exile.
Support Israel? HR is watching.
They are not guardians of rights but enforcers of narrative—more interested in what was said than whether it was true, and obsessed with how it made someone feel, provided that someone was in the correct demographic.
The Collapse of Critical Thinking
All of this would be damning enough if it were just bureaucratic cowardice. But the deeper crisis is cultural.
A 2022 FIRE study shows that nearly two-thirds of North American students believe speakers with “offensive” views should be banned from campus. A 2023 Leger poll revealed that 43% of Canadians under 30 believe people should be fired for saying something offensive, even if it’s true.
This isn’t just censorship. It’s a generational failure of education. Students today aren’t taught to think; they are trained to avoid discomfort. They don’t argue. They report. They don’t challenge ideas. They flag them for removal.
They’ve been told, explicitly and repeatedly, that some topics are off-limits:
Islam must not be critiqued.
Trans ideology is sacrosanct.
Zionism is aggression.
And if you speak out of turn, you are not simply wrong—you are a danger.
Thus, the greatest triumph of censorship is achieved: self-censorship. The unspoken knowledge that some truths must not be uttered, even in private, even online.
On Campus, Censorship Comes from the Left
Let’s dispense with politeness: this censorship is not coming from the old religious right. It is coming from the progressive left—the tenured radicals, the DEI offices, the Human Rights czars.
They no longer want to engage in debate with you.
They want you fired.
They want you unpersoned.
They want your career destroyed, your name dragged, your inbox full of threats.
And when the institutions join them, as they did with Finlayson, we are no longer talking about isolated cases. We are discussing the erosion of the post-secondary moral contract.
Back to the Present: A Man vs. the Machine
The pressure, the abuse, the threats—these were so severe that the WSIB declared Finlayson’s condition a workplace injury: PTSD, directly caused by Guelph-Humber.
His union—CUPE 3913 and OPSEU 562—abandoned him. They have refused even to speak to him in ten months. These same unions are under fire for anti-Semitic statements at meetings, but when it comes to protecting one of their own, they’ve fled the scene.
Now, Finlayson is alone against three institutions. His allies? Friends, family, and strangers—mostly Jewish. The accusers, by contrast, enjoy full institutional protection, growing LinkedIn followings, and silence from university leadership.
The hypocrisy could curdle milk.
Faculty have slandered Finlayson with fabricated stories of student assault. Administrators have locked him out of his office. When he tried to retrieve his late father’s will and other personal effects, they issued a trespass order and threatened him with a $10,000 fine.
This is not policy. This is vindictive authoritarianism, carried out under the soft glow of HR euphemisms and “restorative practices.”
What You Can Do — Before It Gets Worse
Below is a statement. If you agree with it, hit the orange button.
That action will send your statement to five executives across the University of Guelph, Guelph-Humber, and Humber College. It’s not a survey—just a declaration: free speech matters.
You will only be asked for:
Your email (which can be hidden)
Your first and last name
THE BUTTON IS BELOW — PLEASE READ FIRST AND THEN CLICK.
People keep missing it. It’s there. It works. Use it.
This isn’t about expecting to change the world.
It’s about making a principled stand, because if no one does—
The mob wins.
Speak Now, While You Still Can
Past generations went to war for freedom. Today, people are hesitant to post a link because they worry about losing followers.
This is exactly the problem.
The only way this changes is if people say something.
So: say something. Share. Push back. And help us say to the so-called Human Rights machinery:
“We see you. We reject your hypocrisy. And we are not afraid of your silence.”
Below is my accuser’s new map. Hey, where’s Israel?
Finlayson's suspension is now ten months; the pressure and abuse have led to the WSIB declaring that Finlayson has a workplace injury caused by Guelph-Humber.
It is PTSD. You have all treated him like a criminal, and actual staff and faculty (not students only) have actively defamed him and invented stories of him assaulting a student. Even on the day he was suspended without a charge (a month before he was told about a human rights complaint), anonymous executives threatened Finlayson and called for his termination. Staff were circulating lies about "assault" and denigrating his stellar teaching record.
You have the evidence, and you have failed to act.
The witnesses are willing to speak, but you will not listen.
The Humber Human Rights Department is being used as a political weapon.
It's dangerous. It's Canada.
You can fire an innocent man, and you will hear about it from the public, but I say shame on Guelph, Humber, and Guelph-Humber.
Shame on the executives who refuse to respond to these allegations, who hide behind their lawyers who threaten and abuse Finlayson, and who hide behind public safety officers.
How many hundreds of thousands of dollars have been spent on this vendetta against Finlayson?
Guelph-Humber's response to Finlayson going to his office to retrieve personal items, including his late father's will, which is precious to him?
A trespass order. A threat of a 10K fine.
These three institutions, led by GH’s VP and others, have declared war on one man.
However, the greater danger is that our society is forgetting the importance of free speech.
It is shameful that post-secondary institutions are the worst offenders.
Free speech matters. Canadians are asleep and must wake up, open their mouths, show courage and act more like Americans.
Keeping silent is not polite; it is cowardly.
Speak up, Canada. Enough.
_______________________
My puppy is overseeing the class for a moment.
(Not exactly a stellar report card on the University of Guelph on their practises. They are not as bad as they used to be. Perhaps if you respond to nobody, you will get sympathy. C. )
See below. A student texting me to tell me that staff and faculty had so thoroughly dispersed slander that 20 persons told this student about my fictional assault in a classroom.
More fan mail that was initiated by the mob.
584 retweets! Wow. I’ve never got more than four.
It’s so easy to manipulate these posts. I changed the words Palestinian gov. to Israel in the middle. It’s comical.
“The best lack all conviction.”
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