institution

Petter’s “neutrality” means disengagement

[caption id="attachment_795" align="alignnone" width="940"] Image credit: Brandon Hillier[/caption] Academia is political. So is industry. But despite his focus on public-private partnerships, SFU President Andrew Petter strives to avoid acknowledging his — and SFU’s — place in Canada’s political landscape. Petter’s “Statement on Rights of Free Speech and Peaceful Protest,” published last November, proclaimed SFU’s neutrality in the face of “legal matters that are before the courts.” This statement, in response to Kinder Morgan’s SLAPP suit against Lynne Quarmby, Alan Dutton, Stephen Collis, Mia Nissen, and Adam Gold, has prompted a near-ubiquitously negative response from SFU’s student groups.  As part of…

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