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# We Need to Talk About Massey University…Again
- URL: https://goodoil.news/506367/
- Published: 2019-10-17T20:30:10.000Z
- Updated: 2019-10-17T09:38:50.000Z
- Author: General
- Tags: Free Speech, NZ, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2024-07-17 03:49

**Melissa Derby**  
[Free Speech Coalition](http://www.freespeechcoalition.nz/?ref=goodoil.news)  
 Spokesperson  

Wednesday night, Massey University cancelled the “Feminism 2020” event, at which I was due to speak.

The event was organised by *Speak Up for Women* (an organisation that has featured on [our podcast](https://thebfd.co.nz/2019/09/podcast-the-cancel-culture-within-left-wing-parties/?ref=goodoil.news)) and was to host a wide array of speakers on various topics related to women’s issues. However, some social justice activists believe *Speak Up for Women* is ‘exclusionary’ of transgender women. Supposedly, Speak Up for Women’s speech constitutes violence towards vulnerable identity groups.

Massey University [initially resisted pressure](https://thebfd.co.nz/2019/09/massey-university-makes-a-stand-for-free-speech-but-label-feminist-viewpoint-as-controversial/?ref=goodoil.news) from student activist groups to shut down the event. But Massey has now buckled, once again [under the guise of “health and safety”](https://thebfd.co.nz/2019/10/massy-university-one-freedom-of-speech-zero/?ref=goodoil.news) obligations it has to its transgender students and the ‘wider community’. Read Massey’s public statement [here.](https://thebfd.co.nz/2019/10/massy-university-one-freedom-of-speech-zero/?ref=goodoil.news)

Massey claims “We cannot accept any further risk or issues, or any risk of potential harm that may impact upon a particularly vulnerable community.”

**This vague reasoning could be used to shut down literally any event**. What is the point of a university that won’t facilitate events to exchange ideas?

I was going to speak on the breakdown of polite political discourse and the dangers of identity politics. Ironically, it is precisely this phenomenon to which Massey has kowtowed.

## **Help the Free Speech Coalition continue to pressure Massey.**

  
I know that the Free Speech Coalition has already filed Official Information Act requests to get the real facts behind Massey’s decision.

There’s an element of Déjà vu here: Massey is the same university that used health and safety as an excuse to [cancel a Don Brash event.](https://www.whaleoil.net.nz/2019/01/massey-university-fails-to-learn-from-the-don-brash-saga/?ref=goodoil.news) We understand that after the Free Speech Coalition exposed the vice-chancellor’s bias again Dr Don Brash, Massey’s enrolment numbers suffered as a result. Clearly, the impact was not strong enough.

As an educator myself, I am appalled by Massey’s cowardly betrayal of its students. What is a university, if not a place to share and test new ideas and challenge old ones?

Prospective students and their parents deserve to know about Massey’s illiberal stance on free speech – a stance that will undoubtedly reduce the quality of education.

Some on the Left criticised the Free Speech Coalition for defending the rights of right-wing Canadian speakers. **We note, in this case, it is left-wing feminists that we are defending.**

That is why the Free Speech Coalition needs your continued support to fight censorship, close-mindedness, and the coddling of students.

Thank you so much for your support,

https://thebfd.co.nz/2019/09/podcast-the-cancel-culture-within-left-wing-parties/ https://thebfd.co.nz/2019/10/the-free-speech-coalition-needs-your-support/