Back To School

If you live here in Sudbury, you probably remember that back in June,  a Laurentian University (LU) Dean stepped down after making a racist tweet.

We were pretty satisfied when Lesbarreres stepped down and considered the situation essentially resolved, but now a group of LU faculty and students have created a petition to have him reinstated.

Of course, because no one wants to acknowledge that the Dean said white students are discriminated against on campus and address the implications of that; both the group behind the petition and the media have dishonestly framed the controversy as being about Lesbarreres’s use of the hashtag #AllLivesMatter.

No, it was definitely the part about white males facing racism.

The two faculty members spearheading this initiative appear to be Jason Lepojärvi and Guy Chamberland. Both men have also recently been on rants where they equate safe spaces for BIPOC students with racial segregation and seem to really resent the idea that BIPOC might talk about them when they aren’t around.

Gee, why would anyone want a safe place to talk about dudes like this?

Jason Lepojärvi is an Associate Professor at Thornloe University (which operates out of Laurentian) and is Chair of Religious studies. He describes the Islamophobic, homophobic and anti-choice Päivi Räsänen as “Finland’s bravest politician” and frankly, if we were in Religious Studies, we would already be looking for another school to go to.



Guy Chamberland is someone we have been warned about before. Specifically, we were told earlier this year that he is a spreader of Islamophobia at LU.



In his spare time he likes tweets from racist blogs that call for the complete purging of Critical Theory.

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The third signatory of this letter to the Sudbury Mery Martínez García comes across as quite a contrast to Lepojärvi and Chamberland and at least acknowledges that the tweet was hurtful.


This is quite different from Lepojarvi and Chamberland, who have been gushing over this letter from the Society For Academic Freedom and Scholarship (SAFS) that states: “To sum up: Dr. Lesbarreres’s did nothing wrong at all by issuing his tweet.”



Lepojärvi and Chamberland have also enlisted the help of Lindsey Shepard, a right-wing figure most famous for crying a lot like a big baby, which makes her a perfect match for Lepojarvi and Chamberland.


Obviously, these two racist trolls, who are apparently also professors, are despicable, dangerous and a threat to BIPOC students and faculty. The two are keen to point out that their campaign is multi-racial while at the same time being completely disrespectful and dismissive of other BIPOC faculty who disagree with them.



It is probably already obvious, but just in case it needs to be said: We see absolutely no difference between these two guys and other racist trolls we’ve covered like Jason Lafaci and Devon Del Vecchio.

To sum up: Lesbarreres definitely did a very bad thing and anyone who wants to see that systemic racism is exists at LU need only to look at the fact that these two bozos now acting in his name are both department chairs.