Aus Angst vor feministischer Gewalt: Universität verlangt Schutzgeld für Vortrag von Männerrechtlerin

Wie Genderama berichtete, ist für übermorgen, den 6. Februar, ein Vortrag der international bekanntesten Männerrechtlerin Karen Straughan an der kanadischen Universität Ryerson geplant. Das Thema: "Sind Männer überflüssig? Feminismus, Meinungsfreiheit und die Zensur von Männeranliegen". Zum Opfer einer solchen Zensur droht Straughan jetzt selbst zu werden. Nachdem schon in den vergangenen Jahren feministische Ideologinnen durch gewalttätige Randale zu unterbinden versuchten, dass die Anliegen von Männern an kanadischen Hochschulen zur Sprache kommen, verlangt die Universität jetzt eine Art Schutzgeld für Straughans Vortrag. Die Canadian Association for Equality (CAFE) verrät Näheres:

On Friday, January 31, CAFE was called to a meeting with representatives from the Ryerson University Office of the Vice Provost Students and campus security, and informed that if our event with Karen Straughan "Are Men Obsolete? Feminism, Free Speech and the Censorship of Men’s Issues" is to continue we will be required to pay $1600 security fee and change the location of the lecture.

News of this development, which follows a similar requirement for a recent event at the University of Toronto, has led, justifiably, to anger and frustration. It’s felt that universities betray their mission when they charge "free speech" fees to ensure an event, provocative but in no way hateful or discriminatory, may proceed. Such an approach may have an honourable motive in the desire to keep campus safe, but in rewarding those elements who would engage in illegal and unsafe acts in order to stifle expression, the University actually encourages dangerous and lawless behaviour.

After considerable debate and in consultation with parties involved in this event, CAFE has decided to proceed. The event will be a go. We wanted to take a moment to explain our rationale and where it fits into our long term plans:

Thanks to your support CAFE has managed to gain considerable momentum through professional events and inspiring campaigns. That momentum, and the public engagement and media interest to which it has led, requires that we follow through on programs once we have committed to them. We were told to cancel our Warren Farrell event at the University of Toronto in November 2012 after learning of plans to mount a considerable protest. We were told to cancel our Miles Groth event at the same school in September 2013 after learning the University would require a security fee. But we decided to proceed, and it is hard to imagine our organization getting to the place it is now had we given in to the challenges and walked away from those events.

The result: men’s issues awareness at the University of Toronto is now mainstream. The administration no longer requires security fees, having learned the strategic error of their one and only request. Protests are either small or non-existent, opponents having learned they gain no credibility when they employ bullying and harassing behaviour whilst accusing others of such acts of intimidation. And most importantly, we have birthed a new and vibrant Men’s Issues Awareness Society at the University of Toronto to carry on long term programs at the University.

This is our model – and our plan – at Ryerson, and at Universities across Canada. CAFE has announced a 2014 goal: to host events at 8 Universities across Canada. Given such recurring challenges, CAFE announces plans to build a “Campus Outreach Campaign Fund”, a war chest to provide the financial resources to guarantee success. (...) The challenge for CAFE is to balance competing aims. We think it’s absolutely imperative that we build safe places on campus for men’s issues.

Hier findet man die vollständige Erklärung von CAFE.

Deutlicher wird Paul Elam in einem Kommentar für die männerpolitische Website A Voice for Men:

For a more blunt observation, let me try to encapsulate what is actually happening here. It appears that the Ryerson Student Union, the very same group of fascist thugs that preemptively declared that any attempt to speak to men’s issues at that school was to be summarily judged as a misogynistic attempt to undermine women’s progress, has alarmed the school administration of potential security problems (that the fascist thugs themselves will create) in order to force the school to hire additional security for the Straughan lecture — thus charging CAFE an additional $1,600.00 in "security" fees.

The intent here is obvious. Bleed CAFE of their ability to host lectures by threatening to act out violently, forcing CAFE to pay in order to exercise "freedom" of expression.

They did it at the University of Toronto. They are doing it at Ryerson. And part of the unholy arrangement is that CAFE is now forced into a smaller lecture hall that only seats 100 people. That too, as far as I know, was a university administration call, the rationale being that when fire alarms are pulled they will only disrupt the event, and not students in other classes.

One way of looking at this is that it is not such a big deal. $1,600.00 is a serious bit of money, but not world shaking. Well, not world shaking unless you are a refugee from family court struggling to get food on the table; that struggle having a positive side only in that it serves as slight distraction from the heart-crushing absence of your children. And that, folks, represents a fair amount of people that finance us, CAFE, and every other men’s rights initiative going.