Controversy at the University of Ottawa | Trudeau chooses to...

(Ottawa) Invited to comment on the episode that has shaken the University of Ottawa for several days, Justin Trudeau chose to denounce racism, thus appearing to side with the detractors of Professor Verushka Lieutenant-Duval.

Lina Dib and Jessica Beauplat
The Canadian Press

The Prime Minister was responding to a question in the Commons from Bloc leader Yves-François Blanchet on Wednesday.

“What does he think of the censorship against a professor at the University of Ottawa? Asked Mr. Blanchet.

“We must all be aware of the significance of our words,” replied the Prime Minister.

“We promote respect for others and listening to communities. Our priority is always to put forward concrete actions to combat racism in all its forms, ”he added, reading a clearly prepared statement.

Mr. Trudeau thus resumed the speech offered by his Deputy Prime Minister the day before.

“Our government remains unequivocal: anti-black racism is both heinous and illegal,” Chrystia Freeland wrote in an email Tuesday. “When things like this happen, we need to come together and recognize the experiences of our fellow Canadians. We can never remain silent in the face of injustice, ”she also said.

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, too, saw the teacher’s behavior as something reprehensible.

“It’s so clear that a teacher should not use a word like that that is loaded, that is full of historical racism, that can hurt others. Everyone agrees: it is completely unacceptable, which she did, ”he said on Tuesday afternoon.

Meanwhile, in Quebec, government and opposition parties came to the defense of Mr.^me Lieutenant-Duval and denounced “a skid.”

In Montreal, the president of La Ligue des Noirs du Québec repeated this speech rather than the one that prevails in the federal capital.

“You should not be afraid of words,” said Max Stanley Bazin in a telephone interview, stressing that the “context behind” the use of the word “is important”.

“If the goal of the teacher Lieutenant-Duval was to highlight the existence of systemic racism and to teach notions of history, that cannot be seen as a fault,” he suggested.

“However, when a person uses a term in a derogatory sense, that’s where you have to react and condemn; but not to teach the realities of history, it is indirectly to allow or encourage systemic discrimination ”, he insisted.

The University of Ottawa professor of art history and theory used the word that begins with the letter “n” to explain a concept during one of her classes.

A student complained. The teacher, despite her apologies and explanations, was suspended for an investigation. She resumed teaching her class on Wednesday, but only one student was still enrolled, the university administration having transferred all the other students to another teacher.

By the hundreds, professors from colleges and universities came to the defense of M^me Lieutenant-Duval, signing open letters.

On social networks, several attacked with violence the professor and colleagues who supported her.