Media Releases

University of Toronto statement

September 26, 2013

On Wednes­day Sep­tem­ber 25th, the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to and Vic­to­ria Col­lege learned of com­ments made by David Gilmour, a not­ed Cana­di­an author and jour­nal­ist, relat­ing to his lit­er­ary pref­er­ences and choice of teach­ing mate­ri­als.  Mr. Gilmour is not a mem­ber of the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to fac­ul­ty.  How­ev­er, Mr. Gilmour teach­es Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to stu­dents tak­ing an elec­tive sem­i­nar course through Vic­to­ria Col­lege.

Mr. Gilmour’s com­ments have received a great deal of atten­tion through both tra­di­tion­al and social media.  The admin­is­tra­tion has heard from fac­ul­ty, staff, stu­dents and alum­ni alike who were under­stand­ably dis­mayed by the remarks made in his recent inter­view.

One might hope that, in a uni­ver­si­ty envi­ron­ment, teach­ers would encour­age respect­ful air­ing of dif­fer­ences of opin­ion, and that, by air­ing their own views in a respect­ful way, they would encour­age stu­dents to exam­ine crit­i­cal­ly their own beliefs as well as those of their teach­ers and class­mates.

Mr. Gilmour has since apol­o­gized in sev­er­al venues for the offen­sive impli­ca­tions of his remarks.  The Uni­ver­si­ty and Vic­to­ria Col­lege will also ensure that stu­dents in his class are under no mis­ap­pre­hen­sions that Mr. Gilmour’s lit­er­ary pref­er­ences may be trans­lat­ed into assump­tions about their innate abil­i­ties.

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Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to Media Rela­tions
Phone: 416–978-0100
Email: media.relations@utoronto.ca