Defend Free Speech, Urges Author Who Faced Repercussions for Teaching College Students About Pronouns

Canadian author and columnist Lindsay Shepherd's message to Americans is simple: Defend free speech or risk losing it.

In 2017, Shepherd, then a teaching assistant at Wilfrid Laurier University in Ontario, Canada, played for her class a series of clips in which psychologist and author Jordan Peterson talked about personal pronouns and transgenderism. 

Afterward, Shepherd was called into a meeting with her supervisor and a representative from the college's Diversity and Equity Office. She was accused of creating a toxic environment for students and threatened with punishment if she did something similar again. 

Shepherd, our guest today on "The Daily Signal Podcast," recorded the meeting to protect herself and later leaked it to the media. 

“I wanted people in Canada and abroad internationally to know what's happening inside our universities," Shepherd says. "I saw it as a bigger issue than just me having an encounter in this disciplinary meeting."

Shepherd became an activist dedicated to free speech and academic freedom. Her book, called “Diversity and Exclusion: Confronting the Campus Free Speech Crisis,” recounts her experience and offers advice on how to protect free expression. 

“Don't try to cave into leftist ideas just to try to prove to them that you're a good person." she says. "You don't need to prove anything to them, because they're always not going to like you."

Also on today’s show, we read your letters to the editor and share a good news story about the crowdfunding website GiveSendGo, which is raising money for Georgia small businesses affected by Major League Baseball’s decision to move the All-Star Game from Atlanta. 

Enjoy the show!

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