Mark Mercer, Ph.D.

Journalism and Commentary: Detailed Index

To the present from September 2006

• The threat of censorship in Nova Scotia
  Published in the Halifax Chronicle-Herald, Saturday, June 20, 1999, p. A15.
  The Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission claims censorship powers, though nothing in the Nova Scotia Human Rights Act gives it censorship powers.



• The fundamental incoherence of addressing hate through censorship
  Published in The Ottawa Citizen, Monday 15 June 2009, under the headline “Why censorship is impossible in a democracy”
  Since evidence in a hearing must be available to the public and the evidence that a piece of writing expresses hate includes that piece of writing, expressions of hate cannot be censored.



• No grades
  The Cranky Professor, published in The Journal, the student newspaper at Saint Mary’s, Vol. 74, no. 24, 8 April 2009
  Grading has bad effects on education.



• Making Saint Mary’s a safe place for discussion and debate
  The Cranky Professor, published in The Journal, the student newspaper at Saint Mary’s, Vol. 74, no. 22, 18 March 2009
  The administration at Saint Mary’s must take steps to prevent protesters from disrupting campus events.



• Disrupting a talk
  The Cranky Professor, published in The Journal, the student newspaper at Saint Mary’s, Vol. 74, no. 21, 11 March 2009
  Those who disrupted Jose Ruba’s presentation expressed disdain for democracy and civility, while gaining nothing for their cause.



• Scepticism as a route to happiness
  The Cranky Professor, published in The Journal, the student newspaper at Saint Mary’s, Vol. 74, no. 20, 4 March 2009
  Sceptics say that acknowledging that one knows nothing will ease one’s worries; dogmatists reply that unless one believes one knows this or that, one will be racked with worry.



• Liberal multiculturalism
  The Cranky Professor, published in The Journal, the student newspaper at Saint Mary’s, Vol. 74, no. 19, 25 February 2009
  In a liberal society, no one is exempt from a law or regulation in virtue of their cultural of religious affiliations, while no law or regulation derives its legitimacy from custom.



• Freedom of expression at Saint Mary’s
  The Cranky Professor, published in The Journal, the student newspaper at Saint Mary’s, Vol. 74, no. 18, 11 February 2009
  Three years after administrators removed cartoons from a professor’s door, Saint Mary’s University continues to be inhospitable to freedom of expression.



• Evolution in the classroom
  The Cranky Professor, published in The Journal, the student newspaper at Saint Mary’s, Vol. 74, no. 17, 4 February 2009
  Teaching ought not be indoctrination.



• Al Jazeera, but not for the wrong reasons
  The Cranky Professor, published in The Journal, the student newspaper at Saint Mary’s, Vol. 74, no. 16, 28 January 2009
  Canadians should be free from CRTC interference when deciding what to watch on TV.



• Syllabi are not contracts
  The Cranky Professor, published in The Journal, the student newspaper at Saint Mary’s, Vol. 74, no. 15, 21 January 2009
  Taking course syllabi to be contracts between professor and student robs professors of the ability to improve the course as it progresses.



• After all, it’s only natural
  The Cranky Professor, published in The Journal, the student newspaper at Saint Mary’s, Vol. 74, no. 14, 14 January 2009
  That something is only natural (breast feeding, for instance) is no reason to tolerate it; that something is unnatural is no reason not to tolerate it.



• Writing and reading
  The Cranky Professor, published in The Journal, the student newspaper at Saint Mary’s, Vol. 74, no. 13, 7 January 2009
  Perhaps so many students write poorly because so many students read poorly.



• Does secularity put religion at risk?
  The Cranky Professor, published in The Journal, the student newspaper at Saint Mary’s, Vol. 74, no. 12, 26 November 2008
  Yes, it does, but not unfairly.



• Scare quotes
  The Cranky Professor, published in The Journal, the student newspaper at Saint Mary’s, Vol. 74, no. 11, 19 November 2008
  By putting words or phrases in scare quotes, a writer claims the right to use the word or phrase but ducks responsibility for having used it.



• Votes for children, part 2
  The Cranky Professor, published in The Journal, the student newspaper at Saint Mary’s, Vol. 74, no. 10, 12 November 2008
  The social and political interests of children 16 and 17 years old are not being met by current governments.



• Votes for children
  The Cranky Professor, published in The Journal, the student newspaper at Saint Mary’s, Vol. 74, no. 9, 5 November 2008
  Since children 16 and 17 years old are actors on the public stage, they should have a say regarding that stage.



• Remarks for the CCEPA discussion on Canadian human rights commissions and freedom of expression
  Delivered in the Sobey Theatre, Saint Mary’s University, 30 October 2008
  Human rights commissions ought have no power to suppress or censor expression.



• Conscientious objectors
  The Cranky Professor, published in The Journal, the student newspaper at Saint Mary’s, Vol. 74, no. 9, 29 October 2008
  Objectors may be compelled by a democratic regime to violate their consciences, though citizens of such a regime should be loathe to compel them to do so.



• The art of living
  The Cranky Professor, published in The Journal, the student newspaper at Saint Mary’s, Vol. 74, no. 7, 22 October 2008
  The life of fun, the quiet life, the life of service, and the life of accomplishment compared and contrasted.



• Getting right the science of global warming
  The Cranky Professor, published in The Journal, the student newspaper at Saint Mary’s, Vol. 74, no. 6, 15 October 2008
  Global warming threatens disaster for us all, as do the measures required to reduce global warming.



• Civil liberties and democracy in Canada
  The Cranky Professor, published in The Journal, the student newspaper at Saint Mary’s, Vol. 74, no. 5, 8 October 2008
  Civil liberties are in a bad state in Canada today, yet during the recent election that fact did not concern any of the major federal political parties.



• Becoming the 51st state
  The Cranky Professor, published in The Journal, the student newspaper at Saint Mary’s, Vol. 74, no. 4, 1 October 2008
  The United States will invade Canada in the wake of ecological collapse as the Earth warms.



• Letter to Senate
  The Cranky Professor, published in The Journal, the student newspaper at Saint Mary’s, Vol. 74, no. 3, 24 September 2008
  A letter I sent to members of the academic senate at Saint Mary’s urging that a religious objective be deleted from the Academic Calendar and that Saint Mary’s have no official course evaluation form.



• Bad professors
  The Cranky Professor, published in The Journal, the student newspaper at Saint Mary’s, Vol. 74, no. 2, 16 September 2008
  Very few professors are bad teachers, though students sometimes wrongly think a professor is bad because they have a narrow or false view of university teaching.



• Nothing wrong with abortion
  The Cranky Professor, published in The Journal, the student newspaper at Saint Mary’s, Vol. 74, no. 1, 10 September 2008
  From an ethical point of view, a pregnant woman who doesn’t want to be pregnant has no reason not to have an abortion.



• The purpose of laws against the expression of hate
  Published in the Halifax Chronicle Herald, Sunday 10 August 2008, p. A12, under the headline “Hate-speech laws misused to put chill on ordinary views”
  Posted on Blazing Cat Fur, 7 August 2008
  The ultimate purpose of laws against the expression of hate is to engineer a society in which an open-ended number of views and topics are out of bounds.



• Letter to the New York Review of Books
  Posted on Blazing Cat Fur, 15 July 2008
  A quick response to Jeremy Waldron’s claim that censorship laws in Canada have had no bad effect on open and candid public discussion of controversial issues.



• Human rights commissions and their disdain for democracy
  Published in the Halifax Chronicle Herald, Wednesday 9 July 2008, p. A9
  The Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission undermined local democracy when it got involved in the dispute in Truro over gay pride.



• Where is the outrage?
  Posted on the website Blazing Cat Fur, 7 July 2008
  Mainstream media have failed to report the outrageous penalties given Stephen Boission.



• We need not fear words
  Published in the Ottawa Citizen 19 June 2008 (reprinted in the Montreal Gazette)
  Censorship serves to rob the public square of candor, to patronize and enfeeble those it is meant to help, and to encourage the cult of the victim and politics of identity.



• An opportunity for mainstream media to redeem themselves
  Posted on the website Blazing Cat Fur, 9 June 2008
  In covering the Ezra Levant case, mainstream media need to reprint the Jyllands-Posten cartoons.



• To begin to warm this chilly climate
  Published under the title “Bad times for free speech” in the Halifax Chronicle Herald, Wednesday, 21 May 2008, p. A11
  The existence of human rights commissions with the power to suppress or punish expression creates a chilly climate for the expression of opinion and emotion.



• Make freedom of expression a political issue
  Unpublished



• Selecting an editor in chief of The Journal
  The Cranky Professor, published in The Journal, the student newspaper at Saint Mary’s, Vol. 73, no. 23, 2 April 2008
  The editor of The Journal should be selected by the staff of The Journal, not by a board that answers to the Students’ Association.



• Against the Instructor/Course Evaluation form
  The Cranky Professor, published in The Journal, the student newspaper at Saint Mary’s, Vol. 73, no. 21, 19 March 2008
  The ICE form, approved by the Senate of Saint Mary’s, is a terrible course evaluation form.



• Because it’s right
  The Cranky Professor, published under a different title in The Journal, the student newspaper at Saint Mary’s, Vol. 73, no. 20, 12 March 2008
  That it’s the right thing to do is not a reason for doing it.



• Relativism and tolerance
  The Cranky Professor, published in The Journal, the student newspaper at Saint Mary’s, Vol. 73, no. 19, 5 March 2008
  The thesis that an action is right only if it honours values embedded in the practices or habits of a culture does not imply that we ought to tolerate practices or habits different than our own.



• Black Santa
  The Cranky Professor, published in The Journal, the student newspaper at Saint Mary’s, Vol. 73, no. 18, 27 February 2008
  The director of the art gallery at Saint Mary’s did well to refuse requests to remove an offending sculpture from an exhibition.



• The Chief Returning Officer’s power to subvert democracy
  The Cranky Professor, published in The Journal, the student newspaper at Saint Mary’s, Vol. 73, no. 17, 13 February 2008
  It’s anti-democratic to have an authority vet and approve campaign posters.



• Close the human rights commissions
  The Cranky Professor, published in The Journal, the student newspaper at Saint Mary’s, Vol. 73, no. 16, 6 February 2008
  Human rights commissions in this country pose a grave threat to freedom of expression.



• Art is supposed to make you think
  The Cranky Professor, published in The Journal, the student newspaper at Saint Mary’s, Vol. 73, no. 15, 30 January 2008
  Art is not supposed to make you think; art isn’t supposed to do anything.



• Religion is like the music of Céline Dion
  The Cranky Professor, published in The Journal, the student newspaper at Saint Mary’s, Vol. 73, no. 14, 23 January 2008
  One cannot hold a religious belief except in bad faith, and, aesthetically, bad faith is ugly.



• Why I treasure Peter March
  The Cranky Professor, published in The Journal, the student newspaper at Saint Mary’s, Vol. 73, no. 13, 16 January 2008
  Peter March, a professor the virtues of whom the administration at Saint Mary’s never really understood, retired, making Saint Mary’s a much smaller place.



• Amanda’s lament
  The Cranky Professor, published in The Journal, the student newspaper at Saint Mary’s, Vol. 73, no. 12, 9 January 2008
  The point of being a university student lies in striving to meet the standards of excellence in the various practices that constitute the life of a university student.



• Response to Kathleen Skerrett
  Presented at the Trust in Freedom of Religious Expression Panel Discussion, Canadian Centre for Ethics in Public Affairs, Saint Mary’s University, 4 December 2007
  Skerrett thinks that religious people are being shut out of the public square unfairly.



• Christmas is a secular holiday
  The Ottawa Citizen, Friday, 24 December 2008, p. A15
  First published as The Cranky Professor in The Journal, the student newspaper of Saint Mary’s, Vol. 73, no. 11, 28 November 2007
  Christmas is a multicultural celebration of peace, children, and good will, a celebration that has religious significance only to some of us.



• The ethos of a university
  The Cranky Professor, published in The Journal, the student newspaper at Saint Mary’s, Vol. 73, no. 10, 21 November 2007
  Intellectuals are tough emotionally and concerned to avoid correcting others by force.



• Suppose a professor posts a pornographic photo...
  The Cranky Professor, published in The Journal, the student newspaper at Saint Mary’s, Vol. 73, no. 9, 14 November 2007
  We ought not seek to have authorities at the university prevent members of the university community from posting even vile or disgusting images or opinions.



• Values, social ideals, and science
  The Cranky Professor, published in The Journal, the student newspaper at Saint Mary’s, Vol. 73, no. 8, 7 November 2007
  Science is a tool that can be used to help us to realize our ideals; it cannot ever undermine our ideals.



• Demonstrations, protests, petitions, boycotts—and universities
  The Cranky Professor, published in The Journal, the student newspaper at Saint Mary’s, Vol. 73, no. 7, 31 October 2007
  Intellectuals should engage in argument and debate and lead by example; they ought not try to change minds by applying pressure.



• Reply to Dr Bruce
  Unpublished, 23 April 2008
  Dr Bruce favours Saint Mary’s retaining its ties to organized religion.



• The place of organized religion at Saint Mary’s
  The Cranky Professor, published in The Journal, the student newspaper at Saint Mary’s, Vol. 73, no. 6, 24 October 2007
  Saint Mary’s ought to sever its ties to organized religion.



• No Smoking at Saint Mary’s
  The Cranky Professor, published in The Journal, the student newspaper at Saint Mary’s, Vol. 73, no. 5, 17 October 2007
  Smokers will have only themselves to blame should Saint Mary’s decide to ban smoking on campus.



• Against Official Course Evaluation Forms
  Published in Teaching & Learning, Centre for Academic and Instructional Development, Saint Mary’s University, Vol. 18, no. 1, Fall 2007
  Saint Mary’s University ought not have an official teaching evaluation form.



• The Chancellor of Saint Mary’s University
  The Cranky Professor, published in The Journal, the student newspaper at Saint Mary’s, Vol. 73, no. 4, 3 October 2007
  The Chancellor of our university ought to be free to renounce his religion without thereby ceasing to be our chancellor.



• Multiculturalism and diversity
  The Cranky Professor, The Journal, the student newspaper at Saint Mary’s, Vol. 73, no. 3, 26 September 2007
  Don’t foster diversity for its own sake, but do take care, on liberal grounds, to protect and extend multiculturalism.



• Where will you go?
  The first Cranky Professor column
  Published in The Journal, the student newspaper at Saint Mary’s, Vol. 73, no. 2, 19 September 2007
  A complaint against the recruitment ad that tries to sell Saint Mary’s on the basis of what a degree gets you, rather than on the point of being a student.



• Petitions and Academic Freedom
  Published in the newsletter of the Society for Academic Freedom and Scholarship, Number 47, September 2007
  Professors at St. Francis Xavier University showed their disdain for academic freedom by circulating a petition denouncing a professor for attending a conference in Tehran.



• Saint Mary’s students abandon their complaint against Peter March
  Unpublished, 27 November 2006



• Reply to Zach Churchill
  Published in The Journal, the student newspaper at Saint Mary’s, Vol. 22, no. 9, 25 October 2006
  Reprinted in the newsletter of the Society for Academic Freedom and Scholarship, Number 45, January 2007
  Zach Churchill, then the president of the students’ association at Saint Mary’s, defended restrictions on academic freedom and freedom of expression.



• A Comment on the Formal Proceedings against Peter March
  Published in The Journal, the student newspaper at Saint Mary’s, Vol. 72, no. 4, 20 September 2006
  A group of students complained about Professor March’s posting of the cartoons and Saint Mary’s took their silly complaint seriously, thereby putting us all at risk.



• A Report on the Peter March Affair at Saint Mary’s University
  Published in the newsletter of the Society for Academic Freedom and Scholarship, Number 44, September 2006
  Professor March posted the Mohammed cartoons and Saint Mary’s ordered them removed.