Trash Speech, Clean Speech

A few years ago, Rabbi Raphael Leban from Denver, Colorado, launched a community initiative called Clean Speech. The premise of this initiative is simple and powerful: speech can make a difference in the world we live in. Based on the ethical tradition of Judaism, Clean Speech proposes a 30 days program when people receive short videos reminding them about the importance of maintaining a positive way of speaking as a means to improving the dynamics of human relationships through mindful speech. The videos also illustrate the negative consequences of what in Hebrew is called “lashon hara” (the evil language or, more literally, evil tongue) for the individuals and the community. The program will be launched soon in Ottawa. Social media, and particularly Twitter, have become platforms for trash speech. Political polarization, bigotry, racism, insults, degrading discourses and images are constantly conveyed and forwarded through these networks. Unfortunately, universities don’t escape from this reality. We are seeing a troubling trend in North America, including Canada, where professors and students are taking part in this constant streaming of trash speech, without always measuring the consequences of their communicative actions. An example of this negative trend is the recent Twitter rant by Professor of Law and Medicine Amir Attaran from the University of Ottawa. He has a long record of what is known as “Quebec bashing,” wrongfully accusing the French-speaking province of Canada and Quebecers of being essentially racist and intolerant. His views are simplistic, tend to generalize, and he uses shocking, and certainly, wrong comparisons (he wrote that Quebec is the “Alabama of the North”). As many of the promoters of trash speech in the digital public sphere, Professor Attaran has a fixation. It seems that his monothematic trash speech reflects an obsession with the French-speaking province. And with this, he contributes to creating a toxic climate at the University of Ottawa (a bilingual French – English institution). For the good of the university community, Professor Attaran should be more mindful about what he conveys through social media, but I am not sure he will listen to anyone, claiming that he has the right to say whatever he wants. I would invite him to be part of Clean Speech Ottawa. And I hope I won’t become the target of his sharp tongue. Shalom.