Wikileaks cable tells of a ‘shallow’ bias
A diplomatic cable released by website Wikileaks claims Canadian universities harbour a “shallow anti-Americanism.”
The message, written by a United States Embassy official who was taking graduate courses at the University of Ottawa at the time, states that “many Canadian politicians, pundits, and, most of all, academics at traditionally liberal universities” show an anti-American bias. The official, who wrote the cable in 2009, described how in an international human rights class, the professor would ask the students which country was “again noticeably absent” from human rights treaties. Rather than answer “the United States,” students simply pointed at the embassy official, according to the cable.
In a statement released to Postmedia, U of O spokesman Vincent Lamontagne, defended the institution. “Our professors are proven experts in international politics and encourage in-class discussions of actual political situations from all around the world,” he wrote.
The cable identified the war in Iraq and the detentions at Guantanamo Bay as fueling resentment against the United States on Canadian campuses.