Charles McVety, free speech hypocrite - 2013-10-13
Charles McVety, free speech hypocrite October 13, 2013,
There are legitimate reasons why Canada might deny entry to a particular individual. The website of Citizenship and Immigration conveniently lists some of what those reasons are. Yet nowhere on the list does it say anything about having controversial views, because one's views should have nothing to do with your admissibility to Canada. Unfortunately, though, there are many who feel otherwise.
On October 19th, a symposium called "Sexuality, Childhood, and Classroom Life" is scheduled to take place at University College in Toronto. The keynote speaker for this symposium is an American academic by the name of James Kincaid. Dr. Kincaid is a professor at the University of Southern California (USC), and the author of several books on the sexualization of children. Many find his views controversial. On his page at the USC website, Kincaid's work is described as focusing on "the history and current cultural practices of eroticizing children and instituting elaborate scapegoating rituals to disguise what we are doing." As easy as it is to write off the whole field as creepy, these are legitimate issues to discuss in our society — consider our recent debate over where to set the age of consent for sexual activity (it was raised from 14 to 16).
But some Canadians want to keep him out. Led by religious conservative activist Dr. Charles McVety, the Institute for Canadian Values and Canada Family Action have written a letter to the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration urging him to ensure that Kincaid is ruled inadmissible to Canada. The letter doesn't offer much by way of convincing arguments, and mainly serves to demonstrate the extent of McVety's hypocrisy.