Does that also apply to things like "From the river to the sea"?
"judicious" and "discriminating" used to be accolades.
Great piece in the National Post by Terry Newman.
Apparently she has found a legitimate debating society in Canada. You only have to wait until year 3 or 4 or university to be allowed to take part.
The course is called "Dangerous Ideas".
Could this be the beginning of the end of the strangling speech restrictions at Canadian universities?
nationalpost.com
"A new course you probably wouldn’t expect to exist at a Canadian university just wrapped up. “Dangerous Ideas” invited students to tackle difficult and polarizing topics by debating both sides, and the students loved it — suggesting that they would rather examine and discuss ideas than be told that they’re off-limits"
"
Dangerous Ideas is an upper-level combined political science and philosophy seminar course created by
Brad Epperly and
Renaud-Philippe Garner, who work at the University of British Columbia’s Okanagan campus in Kelowna, B.C. According to its syllabus, the course allows students to tackle controversial topics that some people might deem dangerous, including freedom of speech, anti-racism, academic freedom, Zionism and colonialism."
"A
2025 survey found that more than half of students were reluctant to discuss transgenderism and the Israel-Hamas conflict. Almost half wouldn’t even talk about politics, and a majority were in favour of limiting free expression on campuses."
"A 2023
Angus Reid survey found that 58 per cent Canadians believed it was acceptable for universities to ban speakers who promote offensive views on race and gender."
....
"Dangerous ideas bypasses any attempt at deplatforming because, in signing up for the course, students are made aware that they will be engaging with issues they may not automatically agree with and will also have to examine their own firmly held beliefs.
"The seminar works like this: Students are randomly assigned a side to argue on a topic and organized into debate teams. Those not assigned a topic that week judge which side was most persuasive. Students are given readings before each debate and are required to submit their team’s arguments before the debate takes place."
....
One student said, “I think debate is very important because in today’s society emotions have really dominated politics, and a lot of the time people are actually unable to explain why they think a certain way, other than because they feel a certain way.”
Another student said that what the course taught was the difference between defending your ideas and yourself.
The third one said she was surprised by how willing students were to engage with controversial ideas and found that many of the issues were a lot more nuanced than she originally thought. She feels the course is unique because it was set up in such a way that the students were all in it together, and this made them feel comfortable sharing their beliefs, something she said can normally be “really, really scary.”
...
Now if only we can get logic and rhetoric taught in junior high along with debating courses like this.
