Brickbat: Thin Skinned

Campus security at Canada's Capilano University removed a caricature of school president Kris Bulcroft from a campus art gallery after officials deemed it workplace harassment. The sculpture's creator, faculty member George Rammell, says officials have told him they will only return the piece if he agrees not to bring it back on campus.

Comments

[invisible furry hand]

"No one wants Capilano to be a place where art is arbitrarily removed or censored."

Happily, it wasn't removed arbitrarily. It was removed for offending someone powerful, which is perfectly justifiable.

[Suthenboy]

No one? I don't think that is accurate.

[mr simple]

It's not the art censorship they want; it's the art censorship they deserve.

[Snark Plissken]

preamble:

"Our university is committed to the open and vigorous discourse that is essential in an academic community, the inherent value of artistic expression, and the rights to free speech and protest that all Canadians enjoy," Ms. Shackell said.

Of course I believe in free speech and stuff, BUT....

"We must also be mindful of the university's obligations to cultivate and protect a respectful workplace in which personal harassment and bullying are prohibited. ? I am satisfied that recently the effigy has been used in a manner amounting to workplace harassment of an individual employee, intended to belittle and humiliate the president."

This isn't the type of free speech I meant. Maybe if it was Bush or something.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Canada has 'we're freedom but' down to an art.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

'we're for freedom but.

[WDATPDIM?!]

Don't get us wrong. We're not against freedom. But freedom isn't really freedom if it doesn't respect the feelings of every individual [including the individuals who enforce the rules].

[Gene]

and the rights to free speech and protest that all Canadians enjoy," Ms. Shackell said.

Ironic that, given that anti-harassment laws have done so much to erode those liberties.

[Atanarjuat]

OT, saw this gem on FB.

(Do not click if you've already had your monthly quota of exasperating derp.)

[Ted S.]

Perhaps your problem is that you're spending too much time on FB?

[Atanarjuat]

It's not bad in moderation. Nice to see what old friends are up to. One friend who lives across the country now custom builds electronic guitar effect pedals and such. You just have to block the people responsible for the derp.

[Jordan]

Oh goody. An appeal to authority. Well, Burger also supported laws criminalizing sodomy and thought that a life sentence for writing a $100 fraudulent check was not cruel and unusual punishment.

[db]

"Our university is committed to the open and vigorous discourse that is essential in an academic community, the inherent value of artistic expression, and the rights to free speech and protest that all Canadians enjoy," Ms. Shackell said.

None of that is untrue or even dishonest. When one believes that rights are bestowed upon the individual by a mutable State, however, nothing prevents one from also believing that changing the set of "freedoms" granted does not constitute an infringement on said freedoms.

"Loom, the list.of.freedoms was changed, alright, and that.one.isn't there anymore, so it.can't be.infringed upon" seems to be the implicit argument.

[Knarf the Yenrabian]

"Loom, the list.of.freedoms was changed, alright, and that.one.isn't there anymore, so it.can't be.infringed upon" seems to be the implicit argument.

That's the argument of all the positive rights advocates. If you believe that rights are a social arrangement--that they're the consequence of people in power gifting these protections to the citizenry rather than the natural consequence of the adult human ego attempting to feed, clothe, and protect itself--then that's where you inevitably wind up.

It's such second nature to these people that they behave as though you're a YEC if you argue that rights are a consequence of man's social existence rather than an act of legislative altruism.

[WDATPDIM?!]

The State giveth, and the State can taketh away. With extreme prejudice.

[RishJoMo]

Sometimes man you jsut have to roll with it.

http://www.WentAnon.tk

[UnCivilServant]

No one has pointed out the obvious delemma? That statue is a nightmare made manifest and would terrorise the 'trigger warning' crowd even worse than the sleepwalker.

Yes, the "Artist" who spawned it should get his property back.

Mr. Rammell said he is concerned by an e-mail from vice-president Cindy Turner that said the artwork was "dismantled" for the move.

"I'd love to know what 'dismantled' means," he said. "It's a solid casting on a steel frame. You can't dismantle it. I don't know what they've done to it."

Don't worry, you can't kill something like that merely by taking it apart.

Mr. Rammell said while he will not exhibit it on campus, he has a right to work on it at the university during professional development time.

"Professional Development"? What is it you actually teach? "Enhanced Interrogation Techniques"?

[Ted S.]

It's been over a quarter century since the appearance of Mirth & Girth.

[Knarf the Yenrabian]

So, was the

emperor

president offended because she was the subject of parody or that the bust associated with her name is clearly modeled on Janet Napolitano?

Capilano is a public university.

[Knarf the Yenrabian]

$H!#

[Rich]

"I am satisfied that recently the effigy has been used in a manner amounting to workplace harassment of an individual employee, intended to belittle and humiliate the president."

Well, *I* am satisfied that recently the effigy has been used in a manner amounting to a message of goodwill to all humankind, intended to bring amusement, even joy, to the president.

[UnCivilServant]

I am not satisfied, that two-headed monstrosity still haunts me.

[The Late P Brooks]

You're not really free unless you're free from the threat of being made to feel uncomfortable or offended.

[Robert]

Is s/he the one on the left or the one on the right?