{"id":38542,"date":"2017-10-01T08:00:09","date_gmt":"2017-10-01T14:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/?p=38542"},"modified":"2017-12-09T15:33:30","modified_gmt":"2017-12-09T22:33:30","slug":"u-of-c-rocks-become-a-canvas-for-freedom-of-speech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/2017\/10\/01\/u-of-c-rocks-become-a-canvas-for-freedom-of-speech\/","title":{"rendered":"U of C rocks become a canvas for freedom of speech"},"content":{"rendered":"

E<\/span>arly on the morning of Sept. 25, students at the University of Calgary were greeted with a freshly painted Confederate Flag and the words \u201cHeritage Not Hate\u201d on The Rocks, as they are known on campus.<\/p>\n

T<\/span>he Rocks sit outside of MacEwan Student Centre and serve as a promotional canvas for upcoming student events or for students to express their opinions on current events.<\/p>\n

Kimberly Rude, a sociology student at the U of C, did not see that message on The Rocks herself, but doesn\u2019t believe it has a place on a Canadian university campus.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Confederate flag represents a long time of oppression,\u201d said Rude.<\/p>\n

\u201cGiven everything that\u2019s going on in the United States right now, I think it shows that hatred is still embedded in today\u2019s society,” she said.<\/p>\n

The Rocks were repeatedly repainted after students saw the message, with revolving messages that both opposed the original message, or supported it.<\/p>\n

Successive messages included \u201cCanada loves all people\u201d with a heart, \u201cTrump\u201d with a heart around it, and \u201cBlack Lives Matter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ex-Canadian Forces member Scott Muirhead said that the Confederate flag in itself may not be hateful, but it\u2019s relevancy has come and gone.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I see it defended as ‘heritage,’ it should be clear that this is the most shameful part of American history,\u201d said Muirhead.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t believe the \u201cStars and Bars\u201d have any place in Canada outside of a museum, where context can be explained,” he said.<\/p>\n

There are no rule governing what can be painted on The Rocks. However, campus security may be alerted if any student feels directly threatened.<\/p>\n

In a statement reported by CBC News, the university said it is committed to letting students freely speak their minds, as long as violent measures are not taken.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe university supports students and others sharing their views about subjects, including those that are controversial,\u00a0in a safe and respectful manner,\u201d said the e-mailed statement.<\/p>\n

Kiana Wu, a native Calgarian who now resides in New York City who is now attending post-secondary, believes people should be “more amazed” at the efforts by students to cover the potentially hateful messages.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat an incredible thing,\u201d said Wu, \u201cto cover messages over and over to reflect whoever walks by.<\/p>\n

“I do not support the Confederate flag or the current U.S. Presidency whatsoever. So long as it doesn\u2019t lead anyone to act violently, this is a public canvas and should be free to whoever, whatever that brings.\u201d<\/p>\n

The dueling paint jobs came just short of a year into Donald Trump\u2019s presidency and just over a year after a similar incident at Mount Royal University (MRU).<\/p>\n

What an incredible thing, to cover messages over and over to reflect whoever walks by. – Kiana Wu<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A young woman, identified as Zoe Slusar, was caught on video asking another student, Matt Linder, to remove his \u201cMake America Great Again\u201d hat.<\/p>\n

Slusar stated it fostered a hateful and unsafe school environment.<\/p>\n

While MRU didn\u2019t have much comment, the school also emphasized its support for freedom of expression.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Early on the morning of Sept. 25, students at the University of Calgary were greeted with a freshly painted Confederate Flag and the words \u201cHeritage Not Hate\u201d on The Rocks, as they are known on [ READ MORE ]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":400,"featured_media":38579,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"_ef_editorial_meta_text_assignment-slug":"S2 The Rocks","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-38542","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-image","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-campus-2","8":"category-u-of-calgary","9":"post_format-post-format-image"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38542","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/400"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38542"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38542\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41605,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38542\/revisions\/41605"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}