Western University faces lawsuit for interrogating student who pushed back on DEI

A University of Western Ontario student is taking the post-secondary school to court after being interrogated for daring to question the school’s adherence to DEI ideology.

Source: Facebook

Author: Clayton DeMaine, True North

A University of Western Ontario student is taking the post-secondary school to court after being interrogated for daring to question the school’s adherence to DEI ideology.

Margaret Munn is a 63-year-old educator from Scotland who spent approximately 30 years teaching English in Japan and four years teaching adult learners in the Thames Valley District School Board.

She returned to her alma mater, Western University in London, Ont., to access better job opportunities, but on her return, she encountered the school’s newfound commitment to “decolonization” and other woke principles.

Believing freedom of expression was still permitted at the school, she challenged her instructors’ dogmatic beliefs, including in an “Indigenous Education: Towards a Decolonizing Pedagogy” class.

Munn asked what the definition of “decolonization” was and questioned some of the “highly politicized” claims made in the class, such as how the concept could be practically employed in a high school chemistry lab or mathematics exam. The professor allegedly told her that the definition would “reveal itself” gradually over the semester, but only for students engaged in “self-reflection informed by anti-colonial precepts.”

Her pushback led to continuous back-and-forth emails with educators, several disciplinary interrogations with the associate dean and educators, a constant threat that she could be expelled, and barriers to completing the program’s required field placement classes.

Munn’s lawsuit details a series of administrative barriers and harassment she faced for expressing opinions in the classroom, such as that education should remain apolitical, criticism of preventing “cultural appropriation” via Halloween costumes and referring to a male student with large prosthetic breasts by the “wrong pronoun.”

The stress caused by the continuous gauntlet of administrative hurdles led Munn to obtain multiple doctor’s notes for assignment extensions. Yet, she was still made to undergo alleged “struggle sessions” and meetings with program administrators.

Despite this, she graduated from the program. Munn alleges that she was defamed and had to endure stress during the time she spent navigating the disciplinary actions.

Represented by the Free Speech Union of Canada, Munn seeks at least $1.1 million in damages from the University of Western Ontario through the Ontario Superior Court of Justice.

The statement of claim alleges Munn endured mental suffering, emotional distress, harassment, defamation, discrimination and her alleged mistreatment was a breach of the “duty of good faith” contractual obligations of the school and its freedom of expression policy. It also claims the school abused its power and its administration acted in bad faith.

Munn is also asking the courts to determine further punitive measures against the school, which, by its EDI policies, she alleges, makes it culpable for promoting the behaviour of its educators and administrators to discourage the ideological discrimination of future students.

“Academic freedom and freedom of expression on campus are foundational to post-secondary institutions, if their purpose is to foster human flourishing, critical thinking, the search for truth and scientific understanding, and the production of tomorrow’s thoughtful leaders,” Lisa Bildy, Munn’s legal representative, said. “They cannot become echo-chambers enforcing dogmatic worldviews on students, on the pain of the threat of expulsion and still advance their former Ideals.”

While other students focused on their field placements and studies, Munn worked overtime to adhere to allegedly ever-changing penalties and criteria to avoid expulsion. She was allegedly instructed not to challenge Indigenous faculty members and that she was bound to accept their teachings due to their “lived experience,” which she lacks.

Munn was also admonished for refusing to answer essay questions she claimed were designed to elicit confessions of their supposed inherent negative views about Indigenous people. One professor allegedly also referred to students as “white settlers,” which also led to Munn feeling “uneasy” in classes.

After the associate dean of the school escalated the matter to the school’s EDI committee, Munn was allegedly “accused of being racist, colonialist, transphobic and an advocate of child abuse for apparently saying that she had received corporal punishment as a child and was none the worse for it.”

Munn further alleges that she was told not to come to classes, to refrain from debates, and to refrain from bringing up her lived experience in Scotland.

Munn was told her skepticism towards “decolonization” was rooted in her identity as an immigrant, and she “had not yet internalized her Canadian duty to advance Indigenous reconciliation.” She was also asked if she was Catholic after being told to watch CBC podcasts on abuses in a Roman Catholic-run residential school.

Even if she graduated, she was allegedly threatened that the faculty could report her to the College of Teachers, which some did before her graduation, making her employment unlikely.

After advocating for herself, the school’s Senate Review Board found that the associate dean had relied heavily on hearsay, had wrongly accused Munn of plagiarism, and had injected subjective standards into the decision-making process.

The board ruled that the school failed to inform Munn of the rules she allegedly violated and that conditions placed on her were designed to compel Munn to “think and speak in a prescribed way,” which eventually chilled her freedom of expression in the classroom.