Law student receives controversial cartoon, threat, in mailbox
Concerns under investigation by Security Services
Tessa Vanderhart Staff
Michael Kalo is a Jewish law student: far from the expected recipient of anti-Muslim racism.
But when he opened his mailbox last week, Kalo found an anonymous letter, containing threats and one of the controversial cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed printed in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten.
Kalo, a 38-year-old Israeli citizen who moved to Canada two and a half years ago, said that he still feels discriminated against. His grandparents moved to Israel from Iraq, and he has darker skin than many Israelis, he said.
Kalo said that the letter confirmed what he perceived to be racist attitudes directed toward him in the faculty.
The text of the letter went even further, suggesting that he had done something wrong. It read as follows.
“Michael:
“Why do you have to look and behave like that?
“Do you want us to send you back where you came from?
“You do not belong in our Faculty!
“Don’t say we didn’t warn you . . .”
At the bottom of the letter is perhaps the most inflammatory cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed published in Jyllands-Posten: it depicts a man with a beard wearing a bomb for a turban.
“I’m not a terrorist, I’ve never carried a bomb,” said Kalo. “But if this is how I look to others, I’m offended, I’m terribly offended.”
Kalo said that he thinks the letter was a response to a constitutional law class he attended before reading week, where discussion turned to the controversial printing and reprinting of cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed. Kalo compared publishing the cartoons to burning the Canadian flag, he said. He later received negative responses from classmates, “suggesting that one cannot speak up if he is to make opinions that might be uncomfortable for some of us,” Kalo said.
He said that he has not been satisfied by the administration’s reaction: according to Kalo, there were suggestions that he had brought the letter on himself by offending people.
“That’s like suggesting to a victim of rape that she shouldn’t have been dressed as she was,” said Kalo.
Professor Karen Busby, who teaches constitutional law — a class that deals largely with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms — asserted that class discussion on the Mohammed cartoons was not worthy of investigation.
“It was just a classroom discussion. There was nothing unusual about it all. Some students thought that people should publish the cartoons, and others thought that they shouldn’t; it was a perfectly reasonable discussion on freedom of expression going in both directions,” said Busby.
“I can’t really see how there would be any possible link,” she said.
Lorna Turnbull, the associate dean of the faculty of law, distributed a letter to the mailboxes of all law students on Feb. 16, informing students that the mailboxes had been used for the distribution of inappropriate material.
Turnbull said that she had received numerous calls from the media regarding the legitimacy of Kalo’s complaints.
“Whenever a concern is brought to our attention that there has been a violation of university policy, particularly harassment or anti-discriminatory policies, we treat all of those claims very seriously,” Turnbull said.
Security services continues to investigate the incident; it is no longer the responsibility of the faculty of law. Still, Turnbull’s letter of memorandum invited students to contact the Student/Faculty Professionalism Advisory Group, or to contact her with questions.
“I don’t think it’s an issue in the faculty; we’re pretty open. That’s the nature of a law school, actually,” Turnbull noted. “A lot of exchange and discussion goes on inside the classroom and outside of the classroom, as well.”
She added that increasing diversity in the faculty is a major concern of the university, and airing different viewpoints is a priority.
“At the end of the day, some of these [controversial issues] turn out to be serious and warrant the serious treatment; some turn out to be not so serious after all,” she said.
