Newsgroups: alt.comp.acad-freedom.talk,soc.culture.canada,can.politics,can.general,alt.sex From: kadie@eff.org (Carl M. Kadie) Subject: Ontario does/doesn't ban material at universities Message-ID: <1992Oct20.181236.15507@eff.org> Date: Tue, 20 Oct 1992 18:12:36 GMT The following memo was sent last month by Deputy Minister Bernard Shapiro to the presidents of Ontario's colleges and universities. Mr. Shapiro is the deputy minister of colleges and universities for the province of Ontario. That makes him the top civil servant, reporting directly to the (elected) minister of education. I called the Deputy's office and received significant "clarifications". Notes from that conversation follow the memo. =========================================================================== MEMORANDUM TO: Executive Heads all Colleges and Universities INFORMATION COPIES TO: OPSEU,CFOE,COPUS,COU,COUSA,CUEW,BAC,OCUA,OTFA,OCUFA, OCCSPA,OEICC,OFS,OGA,OCOU,SULFO,CUPE FROM: Bernard J. Shapiro SUBJECT: Computer Pornography ________________________________________________________________________ It has recently come to my attention that computer systems at Ontario's colleges and universities, normally used for the exchange of information between academics and scientific researchers, may be providing access to pornographic and/or racist material through international computer networks. It is the ministry's position that publicly-funded postsecondary institutions in Ontario should have appropriate policies and procedures in place to discourage the use of their computing systems for purposes of accessing or sending racist or pornographic materials. Furthermore, offensive material should be removed when it is identified, and appropriate sanctions should be in place to deal with offences. I realize that private computer companies offer their subscribers access to international computer networks and that virtually anyone in Canada with a computer and telephone link can gain access to this material. Nevertheless, I do not believe that publicly-funded institutions should be seen to support either access to, or distribution of offensive material. It is my expectation that each institution will have policies and procedures in place to discourage the use of its computer systems for access to, or sending of, racist and/or pronographic material. Please write to me at your earliest convenience indicating your institution's policies and plans in this regard. Thank you for your early attention to this very serious issue. ========================== End of Memo ================================== I called Deputy Sharpio's office, was transferred to the office of Peter Wright, Director of Policy and Programs, was transferred to Diane Crocker, a Senior Policy Analyst. (If you like any of these phone numbers or Ms. Crocker's email address, send me email.) I asked Ms. Crocker how the policy was made; if it was made in consultation with the universities. She said that it was made without consultation with the universities. She mentioned (before I asked) that the Ministry has no authority to intervene in the universities, that the universities are autonomous. (She mentioned the Ministry's lack of authority several times.) I asked if the Ministry was concerned only with illegal material (obscene material, hate speech) or with all racist or pornographic material. She said that they were concerned with all material and reiterated that they didn't have the authority to do more than express concern. I asked if the Ministry had or would express a similar concern about library material. She said that she understood that the computer material was different from library material because it was forced on people. She said it was "an issue of choice." I said that most computer material is not forced on people, that it is comparable to material on a library shelve. I said that the memo might cause schools to over react. For example, in the neighboring province of Manitoba, the U. of Manitoba banned all on-line discussion of sex. She agreed that U. of Manitoba over reacted and reiterated that the Ministry was only concerned about people being harassed by being *forced* to see pornographic or racist material. She also expressed confidence that the university presidents, to whom the memo was addressed, would understand the Ministry's position and authority. ==================== END of my notes ================== I still fear that universities will over react to the memo. I encourage academics in Ontario to make sure their university sees this clarification or that it gets its own clarification. Also, without help, this article will not reach all of Ontario's universities. If you know someone at an Onterio university who might be interested in this information, please forward it to them. - Carl ANNOTATED REFERENCES (All these documents are available on-line. Access information follows.) ================= caf ================= * About the CAF mailing lists (and newsgroups) A description to the comp-academic-freedom-talk mailing list. It is a free-forum for the discussion of questions such as: How should general principles of academic freedom (such as freedom of expression, freedom to read, due process, and privacy) be applied to university computers and networks? How are these principles actually being applied? How can the principles of academic freedom as applied to computers and networks be defended? ================= banned.1992 ================= * Computer material that was banned/challenged in academia in 1992 A list of computer material that was banned or challenged in academia in 1992. The institutions mentioned are: Ball State U., Boston U. (2), Carnegie Mellon U., German universities, Iowa State U. (3), Irish universities, James Madison U., Middle East Technical U., North Dakota State U., Pennsylvania State U., Princeton, Simon Fraser U., U. of British Columbia, U. of California at Berkeley *, U. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, U. of Manitoba, U. of Massachusetts at Boston, U. of Nebraska at Lincoln, U. of Newcastle, U. of Ottawa, U. of Texas, U. of Toledo, U. of Toronto *, U. of Wyoming, United Kingdom Net, Virginia Public Education Network, Virginia Tech, Western Washington U. (& U. of Washington), Wilfrid Laurier U. (2), Williams College ** ======== * Site of an unsuccessful challenge ** College not directly involved. ================= ================= If you have gopher, you can browse the CAF archive with the command gopher gopher.eff.org These document(s) are also available by anonymous ftp (the preferred method) and by email. To get the file(s) via ftp, do an anonymous ftp to ftp.eff.org (192.77.172.4), and get file(s): pub/academic/caf pub/academic/banned.1992 To get the file(s) by email, send email to archive-server@eff.org. Include the line(s) (be sure to include the space before the file name): send acad-freedom caf send acad-freedom banned.1992 -- Carl Kadie -- I do not represent EFF; this is just me. =kadie@eff.org, kadie@cs.uiuc.edu =