Université Concordia: réactions des citoyens

Quelques réactions de citoyens à propos de l'exposition anti-psychiatrie de la secte de scientologie tenu à l'Université Concordia:


- Dans ce vlog, un étudiant de Concordia exprime son indignation:



- Dans The Gazette, cet ex-étudiant de Concordia dénonce la scientologie:

As a Concordia University alumnus, I am shocked to see an anti-psychiatry exhibition being held there. The exhibition is organized by a group connected with the Church of Scientology, which is well-known to strongly oppose, to the point of antagonism, psychiatry.

The exhibition's goal is clearly to incite fear by linking psychiatry to the worst atrocities of the 20th century, from Hitler's Third Reich to the Columbine shootings. How could a university, a place of academic freedom and transparency, allow an exhibition that selectively presents information that fits an ideology?

Wai Yen Tang
Montreal

- Dans le blogue Fagstein:

As per Church of Scientology’s many statements to the IRS in early 1990s, *all* of Hubbard’s writings are *religious scriptures* (except for his pulp fiction writings.) Keeping this in mind, here is an excerpt of Scientology scriptures:

“The way to redefine a word is to get the new definition repeated as often as possible. Thus it is necessary to redefine medicine, psychiatry and psychology downward and define Dianetics and Scientology upwards. This, so far as words are concerned, is the public opinion battle for belief in your definitions, and not those of the opposition. A consistent, repeated effort is the key to any success with this technique of propaganda.”

— L. Ron Hubbard, HCOPL of 5 October 1971, “Propaganda by Redefinition of Words”

So, in essence, Concordia University is letting itself being used by a Scientology front as a tool for Scientology’s religious agenda.

Et cet autre lecteur:

Okay, so here’s an analogy. Suppose the Economics department hired a Lyndon LaRouche nut to a tenure-track position at Concordia. If they tried to stop him from teaching or publishing his ideas, this would be a clear violation of academic freedom. But if they had the wisdom not to hire him in the first place, this would simply be a matter of maintaining academic standards.

The same is true of exhibits. The administration has a crucial gatekeeping function: it must decide who–whether students, faculty, or members of the public–can participate in university life. It is not only permissible, but indeed necessary, that it deny certain people the right to participate. The criteria for this decision are fairly straightforward: people must live up to certain academic standards.

If no faculty members or student groups invited the Scientologists on campus, the university was perfectly within its rights to deny them space. But what makes this turn of events truly embarrassing for Concordia is that administrators–and I truly believe this is the case–are so intellectually impoverished that they can’t distinguish between serious academic research and the half-baked ideas of the CCHR. They obviously couldn’t see how or why this exhibit might be controversial. This isn’t a question of academic freedom; it’s one of managerial incompetence.