Boring Not Breaking News - About Libraries

    Perhaps it is better to provide some news that is benign rather than the brutal kind readily available elsewhere. Libraries are generally safe subjects and places and here are some positive stories about them. 

Seven Days A Week

  That news release reveals what you need to know and the stories which followed were all positive. As I mentioned back in "Factlet (17), the TPL is the biggest and busiest public library system in North America and they will now be even busier.

 1.  "All Toronto Public Library Branches Will Soon be Open Seven Days a Week: The city’s network of 100 locations is the largest and most used public system on the planet," Lindsey King, Toronto Life, Sept. 23, 2025.
   "Pulitzer-winning journalist Barbara Tuchman once said, “Nothing sickens me more than the closed door of a library.” Today, Torontonians can pour one out for the legendary writer, because the Toronto Public Library just announced that it will be keeping its doors open longer while adding much-needed new programming."
 2.  "When People Need Them Most" Every Toronto Library Now Open Sundays as Part of Citywide Access Push," Jermaine Wilson, CTV News, Oct. 17, 2025.
   "How much demand is the city seeing? When the library increased hours in 2024, officials say participating branches recorded a 44 per cent jump in visits compared to the same period the year before. Library usage citywide has also climbed, with 81 per cent of residents accessing TPL services."
 3.  "Olivia Chow Announces Plan to Open all Toronto’s Libraries Seven Days a Week by July 26, Raju Mudhar, Toronto Star, Oct. 28, 2025.
   "The cost of adding the additional hours is $2 million to the city’s budget, according to Chow. As for the approach, it will be phased in, as recruitment of new librarians and other logistical issues need to be sorted out. By the end of it, all libraries will be open on Sundays from 12-5 p.m. and several smaller libraries, which are closed on Monday’s will also open that day."
  “We have a saying at the library, the best thing a library can be is open,” said city librarian Vickery Bowles. “(This) doesn’t impact just one community. It impacts all communities, all residents across this great city. 
   “As part of this enhancement of this budget increase. We are adding approximately 42,000 hours of service in the next three years, which is an incredible feat (and) an incredible investment,” said Remtulla. 
   He added that “Sunday hours just make sense,” as many people have the day off and can make use of the library’s services. Remtulla also noted it’s one of the few remaining free places that anyone can use in the city and take advantage of its many programs."

   I am pleased to be able to finally post something positive about Toronto. Many of us are pleased that we are able to do more things than we could back in the early 1990's when stores were still forced to close on Sundays.
   I understand that university libraries are different, but I still think it would be better if they were open, a subject I addressed in this post - "Library Stuff" - from which this image is taken: 

Prison Libraries
   In this case, the title tells the tale: "A Smuggled Book Changed His Life. Now He’s Built 500 Prison Libraries:  Reginald Dwayne Betts was locked up as a teenager for carjacking. Books were his escape, and he went on to be a poet, lawyer and founder of Freedom Reads," Maggie Penman, Washington Post, Oct. 24, 2025.
   Mr. Betts founded Freedom Reads in 2020 and it is funded by donations and grants. "Betts said that for people in prison, books offer more than comfort or distraction. They offer possibilities, allowing people to imagine new lives for themselves. Betts also said that reading cultivates empathy by letting people put themselves in someone else’s shoes."
   "In August, Freedom Reads opened its 500th library at the York Correctional Institution, Connecticut’s prison for women. Betts read from “Doggerel,” and all the women who attended received a copy, lining up for him to sign it. One of the inmates decorated the wall with a mural celebrating the milestone and shared the organization’s slogan: "Freedom begins with a book."
   For his efforts, Mr. Betts received a MacArthur "Genius grant". If that grant sounds familiar, I last mentioned it in relation to Cormac McCarthy, who was a recipient as well. The amount associated with the grant is not insignificant: "The MacArthur Fellowship is a prestigious grant program, commonly called the "genius grant," that awards $800,000 to individuals showing exceptional talent and creativity in their fields. The money is paid out over five years with no restrictions on how it is used, intended to provide financial freedom for recipients to pursue their work."

Artificial Intelligence for the Unintelligent

 A.I. For Dummies - That Would Include Me
   If, like me, you are confused by a 'word' like "ChatGPT", or feel very small when the subject of large language models surfaces, then this post is for you. Or, if you are puzzled by headlines, such as these, then this post is for you: "Tens of Thousands of White-Collar Jobs Are Vanishing as AI Starts to Bite," or "From Mexico to Ireland: Fury Mounts Over a Global A.I. Frenzy". Plus, there are even more puzzling ones about "Sycophantic A.I. Chatbots" and "A.I. Hallucinations". Even the headlines that are pleasing (for a very small some), can be puzzling for the rest of us: 'Nvidia Is Now Worth $5 Trillion as It Consolidates Power in A.I. Boom." Or, maybe you have heard of this book and are worried, because the title clearly suggests we should be -- If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies: Why Superhuman AI Would Kill Us All. 
   Well, I did recently see two cartoons which illustrate clearly to a dummy like me, that there are two things AI relies upon that we should really be concerned about:

1.

2.
 

Sources (and more)

  The top cartoon is from The Guardian. The bottom one is from a New Yorker. This also is from the New Yorker:" A single data center can use as much power as the city of Philadelphia. And they’re popping up everywhere. These sprawling buildings, filled with rows of computing equipment, are the factories of the A.I. economy; they power all those mundane chatbot searches, sucking up tons of energy in the process."

Olde Posts Addenda (6)

     Since all of the news is "breaking" these days, here are some more stories which have broken and are related to older news items in MM.

   My lack of output recently is explained by the fact that much of October was spent in Vancouver. I suppose I could have written something while there, but the scenery and grandkids are too distracting.
   To get back to blogging, I will begin by discussing an article I read that is related to a subject about which I have written a few times in MM. That article, combined with my posts, will help you understand why senior citizens are now often seen among university students, and on which campuses they are most likely to be spotted.

University Retirement Communities (URC)
   The article raises this question: "Why Are More Retirees Going Back to College?" They are not only going back to them, but choosing also to live on campuses, or reside close by in college towns. The full citation is provided here:
"Why Are More Retirees Going Back to College? At Arizona State University, residents pay about $500,000 in entrance fees to live on campus and take classes alongside undergraduates," Sarah Bahr, New York Times, Oct. 20, 2025.
   Over the years, this trend has been followed in Mulcahy's Miscellany and much that has been written about it recorded in: "Retiring Back to University," "Campus Corner," and "Lifelong Learning,". That last post discusses Mirabella at Arizona State University, which is the one profiled in the NYT article cited above. 
   It also provides links to some other examples of university retirement communities and an omnibus one that is essential for anyone interested in this subject: URC: University Retirement Communities.com: The #1 Source For Information on University and College Retirement Communities. Eight-four University Retirement Communities are listed along with links and descriptions. Some of the names are alluring: "Azalea Trace", "Butterfield Trail Village", "Edenwald", "Loomis Lakeside at Reeds Landing", "Oak Hammock", "The Cedars of Chapel Hill", and "The Forest at Duke." Others appeal to alumni: "Longhorn Village" and "Sooner Station".

University Based Retirement Communities (UBRC)
  Apart from providing useful information, the website attempts to clarify what can be considered a university or college retirement community and to determine the degree of connection to the institutions. That is, does a retirement community which appears to be associated with a university, have a direct relationship with that university? It is suggested that those looking for information related to this topic consider a distinction between a University Based Retirement Community (UBRC) and the more generic University Retirement Community (URC). The UBRC  "is a retirement community that has been certified as having a deep, integrated partnership with a local university, going beyond just proximity. These communities offer residents full access to university facilities, courses, and events, fostering intergenerational connections and lifelong learning through structured programs and organic interaction. The "certified" status signifies a community that meets specific criteria for this high level of integration, distinguishing it from other senior living communities near a university."  

Some CANCON:
   There are no Canadian examples among the 84 listed on the "University Retirement Communities.com." website. Some will be found in the posts in MM provided above. For a link to one located close-by see: Schlegel Villages, "The Village at University Gates." (University of Waterloo.)
   Given that the numbers of foreign and young students are decreasing here in Ontario, perhaps senior citizens should be considered as replacements, and they are likely to be better 'customers.'

The Bonus: 
  A couple of years ago I provided a post about Berry College which has, arguably, the largest campus in the world. This spring I had to visit relatives in the United States and was able to go through the campus of Berry College in Rome, Georgia. It is indeed very large and beautiful and  provides a scenic detour that allows one to avoid Atlanta if travelling to Florida on I75. At the very far end of the long winding drive through the Berry campus, there was a retirement village being constructed in the Georgia pines. It is one of the communities listed on the URC website. "The Spires at Berry College" is described this way: "Breathtaking beauty in your backyard. Celebrated as “America’s most beautiful college campus” and nestled alongside pristine Eagle Lake at the foot of Lavender Mountain, our location at Berry College is without question a picturesque place to retire. Even better, this incredible lakeside sanctuary serves as the setting for senior living that feels every bit as good as it looks."

(P.S. - Take your tennis rackets. The Rome Tennis Center at Berry College has 63 courts, 6 NCAA regulation courts and 3 stadium courts.)

Sources:
  Researchers should start with the "University Retirement Communities" website. 

Another good list is found in this issue of Retirement Living - "College- Linked Retirement Communities."
   For Canada, in addition to the university retirement communities mentioned in the related posts in MM, see this article: "University Based Retirement Communities (UBRC in Canada," Stephanie Sadownik, Advance, Oct. 5, 2022. Here is a sample from it: 

"University Based Retirement Communities (UBRC) in Canada,"

   Do University Based Retirement Communities (UBRC) exist in Canada? A literature review of the search “University Based Retirement Community” provided multiple papers and recent conference proceedings by authors (Hou & Cao, 2021; Kim, 2017) who had completed case studies of UBRC’s in the United States but did not produce any that featured Canadian Universities....

Conclusion

   This paper considered the definition of University Based Retirement Community and noted demographics, advantages and disadvantages as reported in academic journals, theoretically considering a Canadian perspective, in addition to the plausibility of a UCRB program while considering possible locations in Canada and accompanying universities that fit the parameters and subcategories. Insight was gained from the acknowledgement that intergenerational learning for UCRB’s has limited knowledge of retired adults perspectives and benefits, and even less knowledge in Canada about the benefits Elders and First Nations retiring adults experience. Further investigations are needed to understand this perspective and any changes that are noted that might help to gain deeper insight into the value of UCRBs in Canada."

Rambling in America

   From the title you might assume that this post is about one of the many speeches given recently by President Trump. That is not the case. Instead, I am offering a suggestion for a book to read, once the weather turns. If the weather had not been so good for so long, I had planned to review the book myself, but will now provide remarks and reviews by others since we are about to leave for a few weeks in British Columbia and the weather is still too nice to be blogging. 

Walking From Washington, D.C. to New York City

   Here is how it begins:

  "Our house stands along a row of white maples nine blocks east of the U.S. Capitol, as it has since Ulysses Grant was president. Tens of thousands of times in our twenty-two years there I have opened the wrought-iron gate between the garden and the sidewalk for trips to work, dog walks, early runs, quick jaunts to the store for a clutch of bananas, or with daughters in hand on Christmas morning.
   This trip was different. On a fresh morning in late March, I stepped past the threshold of our front door, tugged the garden gate closed behind me, and set off to walk to the city of New York. A slow stroll, I liked to say, down a fast lane. An easy walk along a founding swath of the country that most travelers want to put behind them....No hastening anything on this trip. I wanted nothing over. I kissed my wife, Shailagh; said goodby to my brother Jeff; scratched my Airedale behind the ear; and turned north. I was off to talk to America, to listen to her, to examine her, to wonder over her, at what we all hoped was the end of one of the roughest patches in our history. I wanted to think about what we are, and once were, and still yearned to be. To poke among the graveyards of our past and brush the moss off forgotten things. To chew over this American project and come to some hazy conclusion over whether America was still possible or had seen its best days."

   As the author acknowledges, the walk from downtown D.C. to Manhattan is not a difficult one and anyone familiar with the general area would likely choose to ramble around just about anywhere else in the U.S. For example, although the title of Chapter 21 seems promising -- "Cresting the Great Mound" -- it is about climbing the Edgeboro Landfill in New Jersey. And, even though the author offers again a warning that much of the walk will be about wandering through a wilderness of warehouses, rather than the other kind, it is still a journey you should take with him.

   "There's nothing heroic about walking to New York, It is a humdrum feat by any measure. It is no trail through Appalachia to the peaks of Maine. No Everest looms along the way to surmount. No Grand Canyon to get across. No Cyclops to gobble me while sailing home from Troy. No Amazon requiring a machete in the belt for vines or snakes, No warlords or highwaymen along the way to loot one's knapsack. The gravest threat was a driver looking at his phone."

Believe the Blurbs

"This is a near perfect book, an exquisitely seen and felt memoir of an American journey; it's not just a geographic journey, full of keen observations and thoughtful insights, but a spiritual one, finding in our complex and sometimes contradictory landscape a mirror in which King's own inner life awakens as he wanders. Amazing."

— Ken Burns

"Part travelogue, part history, American Ramble is a thoughtful, warm-hearted guide to the country that we’ve inherited and that we’re making." — Elizabeth Kolbert, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Sixth Extinction

"A 61-year-old journalist, recovering from cancer, sets out to walk from Washington, D.C. to New York City. Where we might see monotony and sprawl, overpasses and rest stops, he finds time and nature, humankind in all its variety, and even, at moments, rapture. Go with Neil King on this fascinating, enchanting, and rewarding journey." — Evan Thomas, author of the New York Times bestselling First: Sandra Day O’Connor and Being Nixon.

"Beautifully written, American Ramble is packed with keen observations, surprising discoveries, and wise reflections. Readers will be rewarded at every turn in the road. It is a journey both through a landscape most of us never see and through the tangles of America’s history. It is also about perseverance and renewal. Neil King is a gifted writer, and this book is a gift." — Daniel Yergin, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Prize and The New Map: Energy, Climate, and the Clash of Nations.

Sources:
   Reviews are easily found and always adulatory. The book is readily available and for those in London, copies are found in the London Public Libraries. 
   Unfortunately, King had been diagnosed and treated for cancer before the walk and did not live long after it. Here are two obituaries.

"Neil King Jr., Who Wrote of a Long Walk of ‘Renewal,’ Dies at 65," Trip Gabriel, NYT, Sept. 27, 2024.

   "Neil King Jr., a journalist whose book, “American Ramble,” told of his 330-mile trek from his home in Washington, D.C. to New York City while in remission from cancer, an account that lyrically evoked the people, history and back roads of the Mid-Atlantic region, died on Sept. 17 in Washington. He was 65.

   Mr. King’s travelogue-cum-memoir, whose subtitle is “A Walk of Memory and Renewal,” was based on a 26-day hike he began in late March 2021, when the country was emerging from the Covid lockdown. (He modestly called it a “humdrum feat by any measure.”) It crystallized for many readers how the pandemic had heightened a sense of life’s urgency and fragility."

   "Neil King Jr., Who Walked the Byways on His ‘American Ramble,’ Dies at 65," Washington Post, Sept. 20, 2024.
   "The idea for his ramble germinated over decades, fed by his fascination with history and inspired by the treks of other writers such as Patrick Leigh Fermor’s hike through Europe in 1933 recounted in “A Time of Gifts” (1977) and Bruce Chatwin’s travels in Australia’s Outback in “The Songlines” (1987).

   Then, over a few turbulent years, Mr. King felt a deep urgency to make his journey. He had bounced back after cancer surgery but knew there were risks that the disease could return. The pandemic lockdowns amplified the pull of the road, he said. And the violent storming of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, by supporters of President Donald Trump left Mr. King wanting to observe America’s deep political fissures from the modest vantage point of a lone wanderer.

“I had set out with a wonder first stirred by a sickness,” he wrote. “A jolt of fear had opened a seam of freedom, and I had slipped through. I went out to seek and give meaning, with the giving being a key part of that conversation.”

 On March 29, 2021, Mr. King slipped on his gray-and-green backpack, put on his tweed cap, gave one last stretch to his lanky 6-foot-5 frame and walked down the front steps of his Capitol Hill townhouse."

Cormac McCarthy's Library

 

   I often write about libraries, and about a dozen posts relate to the libraries of individuals, not the institutional kind.  The last one, about Darwin's Library, contains links to some of the others. Scholars like to browse through them, looking for influences, while many of us are just curious about the books to be found on the shelves in private homes. 
   Little was known about Cormac McCarthy's library since he led a rather solitary life in a house near Santa Fe, New Mexico. Apart from writing he would hang out at the Santa Fe Institute which is a scientific research center. Perhaps that explains why his collection of over 20,000 books (with more in storage) covers many subjects. The group of scholars attempting to organize and catalog the collection have already discovered that,

 "discernible in his work but confirmed beyond doubt in his library, was that McCarthy was a genius-level intellectual polymath with an insatiable curiosity. His interests ranged from quantum physics, which he taught himself by reading 190 books on the notoriously challenging subject, to whale biology, violins, obscure corners of French history in the early Middle Ages, the highest levels of advanced mathematics and almost any other subject you can name."

   In my small collection, I do not have any books by McCarthy, although I did read The Road and saw the movie, No Country For Old Men. His library, however, contains books by a wide assortment of authors as this description indicates:

   "Giemza marveled at the heavy-duty philosophy books they were finding. “Seventy-five titles by or about Wittgenstein so far,” he said, referring to the Austrian philosopher of mathematics, logic, language and the mind. “And most of them are annotated, meaning Cormac read them closely. A lot of Hegel. That was his light evening reading, apparently.” 
   In the living room was a pool table piled with books and a leather couch facing two tall windows and three sets of nine-foot-tall wooden bookshelves designed by McCarthy that held approximately 1,000 books. Moving closer, I saw they were nearly all nonfiction hardbacks with no obvious system of organization.
   One shelf held volumes about Mesoamerican history and archaeology, along with Charles Darwin’s collected notebooks, Victor Klemperer’s three-volume diary of the Nazi years, books about organic chemistry and sports cars, and an obscure volume titled The Biology of the Naked Mole-Rat (Monographs in Behavior and Ecology). Another shelf held books about Grand Prix and Formula 1 racing, a great passion of McCarthy’s, and the collected writings of Charles S. Peirce, the American scientist, philosopher and logician, in six fat volumes of dense, difficult prose."

McCarthy wins a MacArthur
   McCarthy grew up in Knoxville in a relatively wealthy family, 'but Mr. McCarthy wrote for many years in relative obscurity and privation." In the early '80s, however, he did win a "Genius Grant" from the MacArthur Foundation, a fellowship that comes with a considerable amount of money. He was, of course, very successful in his later career, and at the end of it he sold his archives to Texas State University for $2 million. One reason he had so many books is that he did not use the Internet or a computer. His Olivetti sold for $254,500 at auction. 

The Bonus: 
   Apart from books, he also left behind a few automobiles. Here is a description from the article by Richard Grant, cited below:

   "I parked behind the house between a silver 1966 Buick Riviera rusting on deflated tires and a weathered red Lincoln Mark VIII. These were among the last survivors of McCarthy’s little-known vehicle collection. Dennis had sold 13 other cars, including two Allard racing cars from the early 1950s, a 1992 Lotus and a Ford GT40 racing car. McCarthy, who labored in obscurity and chronic poverty until he was 60, became a multi-millionaire later in life and freely indulged his desires and obsessions, with classic sports cars high on the list. Most of the money came from Hollywood, which turned three of his novels—All the Pretty Horses, No Country for Old Men and The Road—into star-studded movies."

Sources:
    The quote above and the picture of the typewriter are from this obituary: Cormac McCarthy, Novelist of a Darker America, Is Dead at 89: “All the Pretty Horses,” “The Road” and “No Country for Old Men” were among his acclaimed books that explore a bleak world of violence and outsiders," Dwight Garner, New York Times, June 13, 2023. For another obit: "Cormac McCarthy, Spare and Haunting Novelist, Dies at 89," Harrison Smith, Washington Post, June 13, 2023.
   The description of his library is from this very good article and the title indicates that examining private libraries can be revealing: "Two Years After Cormac McCarthy’s Death, Rare Access to His Personal Library Reveals the Man Behind the Myth," Richard Grant, Smithsonian Magazine, Sept./Oct. 2025. 
   For more about his library see: The Cormac McCarthy Library Project. There is a Cormac McCarthy Society and they produce one of those single-author journals which I have often discussed, The Cormac McCarthy Journal. See, for example, "Periodical Ramblings (8)". 

ON Scrapple

 Everything But the Oink
   Scrapple consist of the scraps left over when a pig is slaughtered and it is typically fried and served at breakfast. You are reading about it today because I found this piece from about seven years ago. I had saved it because the Delmarva Shorebirds had decided to rename the team the Delmarva Scrapple, for one day - the day that happens to be my birthday. They may not have known that. Here is part of the scrap I found which is from Ballpark Digest, June 14, 2018:

The Delmarva Shorebirds (Low A; Sally League) are planning a cuisine-inspired one-game name change, as they will become the Delmarva Scrapple on August 18. 

   "Scrapple is a breakfast meat that is extremely popular on the Delmarva Peninsula and in the Mid-Atlantic Region. Whether you enjoy your scrapple thin and crispy or thick and mushy, on an egg and cheese sandwich, with ketchup, grape jelly, or with maple syrup, this celebration is for you.

   The Shorebirds will sport specialty scrapple jerseys and caps on Saturday, August 18 in honor of this delicious breakfast meat. The specialty scrapple jerseys will be auctioned off during the game on the second level concourse and will resemble a package of scrapple that you can find in your local grocery store. The specialty scrapple caps show a brand new scrapple, egg, and cheese sandwich logo."

   If you search for scrapple in Canada on the Internet, the AI generated response may indicate it is available here, for example, at Walmart. I don't think so and if you able to get it, it is likely to be from an online source. 
   Since it is popular in the mid-Atlantic region of the U.S., you may not want to order it from that area because the U.S. is not popular these days. But, consider that scrapple was likely 'discovered' by the Pennsylvania Dutch, not the 'Americans'. Plus, surely we have some extra pig parts up here and can learn how to make our own. That is not the case with soft-shelled crabs which I miss much more than scrapple. 

Sources:

   The Wikipedia entry is the place to start and for more see "Scrapple" in The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia.   Recipes are easily found, even if scrapple is not. For all sorts of good, old recipes, see "Food History" and especially the TIMELINE buried in it. I didn't find scrapple, but I did find a recipe for "Pigs in blankets" from 1956 and how to do - PORCUPINES, which begins this way:

"In the culinary world, there are three edible porcupines:

1.A uniquely armored nocturnal game animal providing protein and fat to hungry people in both Old World & New

2.A neatly formed ground meat dish resembling this quilly creature

3. A stewed apple dessert sporting nut "quills": Apple Porcupine & Porcupine pudding.
   You are reminded that the cooking of SQUIRRELS is described in, "ON Squirrels."

Margaret Munn versus Western University

   Given that my last post was about a professor suing a university in the United States, I will now offer one about a student suing a university in Canada.  
   The student is Margaret Munn and the university is Western (often still referred to as UWO - the University of Western Ontario - in the sources provided below.)
   The major purpose of this post is to provide sources for information related to Munn's experience at Western and the lawsuit which has resulted. The litigation is ongoing. When the case is resolved, and if the result is reported, these background references may be of interest.
     I was unable to find any London reporting about "the Munn Affair", which is not unusual given the state of the local press, and the Western-related publications may be reluctant to approach the subject for other reasons, not-the-least of which is that the case is currently being litigated.
    The sources offered below are the ones that were found after a fair amount of searching. If they appear to be skewed in favour of Munn, that is in fact the case, but they were the only ones found; there were no critical ones to be excluded. Admittedly, less searching was done on social media sites where I did see a few negative comments about Munn and about the quality of the sources I note below. Here is one example from Reddit: "If you believe Jonathan Kay's reporting verbatim you need better critical thinking skills. He is highly ideological and sees himself as an anti-"woke" crusader." 
   I am choosing to say nothing about "the Munn Affair", or the quality of the sources. You can do some searching on your own, or read or listen to the sources provided and decide for yourself.

To Get Started:
       The lawsuit is outlined in this "Statement of Claim" filed with the Ontario Superior Court of Justice on Jan. 10, 2025. At the time this is being written, the 22 page document is available to the public and can be accessed by clicking on this link: MARGARET MUNN and THE UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN ONTARIO. (a summary can be generated.)

Ledrew and Laywer Lisa Bildy (a UWO grad.)

  For a short interview with Munn's lawyer which offers basic background information see: "The Case of Margaret Munn VS University of Western Ontario," Stephen Ledrew, Hosts Lawyer, Lisa Bildy, The News Forum, n.d. The introduction is found by clicking on the link above and lasts 4:50. The rest of the 20 minute interview is found under, "Political Correctness and Censorship at Canadian Institutions," The News Forum. 
  More about Munn, her "offences" at Western and the actions by some in the Faculty of Education and the reaction by the Western Senate, is found in this summary provided by the Free Speech Union of Canada: "Margaret Munn v. University of Western Ontario," May 12, 2025.

  For Additional Background:
   The first article about Munn's experiences at Western is this very long one: "Lessons From a Teacher-College Battle Over Free Speech and 'Decolonization': University of Western Ontario Instructors Spent Months Denouncing an Outspoken Education Student Who'd Asked Awkward Questions About Indigenous Reconciliation - Until a UWO Tribunal Concluded They'd Violated Her Rights," Jonathan Kay, Quillette, Nov. 29, 2024. The entire article is available by clicking on the link above.
   For those who would rather listen than read, the author has more recently offered this account which is 25 minutes long. A link and an indication of the contents are provided here:
"Why This Student Was Punished for Asking the Wrong Questions at University of Western Ontario?" Jonathan Kay, Quillette, May 20, 2025.
   "In a speech at the University of Western Ontario, Quillette editor Jonathan Kay shared insights from his investigation into UWO’s teachers college, focusing on a controversy involving Margaret Munn, who questioned the curriculum's decolonization focus. Munn's inquiries led to a backlash, with UWO's Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion committee pushing for her expulsion. However, UWO's Senate Review Board Academic ultimately vindicated her, emphasizing the need for free speech and academic freedom. Kay highlights systemic pressures and incentives in academia that prioritize ideological conformity over open dialogue, urging reforms to support intellectual diversity."

00:15 The speaker’s legal career struggled due to moral dissonance with clients
01:39 Journalism reveals institutional pressures over personal morality
02:19 Margaret Munn faces challenges as a non-traditional student at UWO
04:40 UWO's decolonising pedagogy course is criticised as overly ideological
08:07 Munn questions decolonisation narratives, disrupting academic orthodoxy
10:24 UWO’s EDI committee seeks to expel Munn for ideological dissent
12:42 Curriculum changes and staffing reflect institutional haste and pressure
18:31 Administrators prioritise ideological trends over academic integrity
22:12 University reform requires changing incentive structures
23:09 Lena Dagnino defends academic freedom and Munn’s rights
23:37 Judgment critiques constraints on Munn’s academic expression
24:21 Panel defends intellectual freedom and academic values
24:49 Call for scholars to uphold academic principles
25:03 Based on a speech promoting liberty and rule of law

   A response to the reporting by Kay about the "Munn Affair" is found here:

"Schooled in DEI: UWO Sued for Ideological Teacher Training," by Jamie Sarkonak, National Post, May 24, 2025. Here are the first three paragraphs:

   "The point of the University of Western Ontario's education program should be to teach its students how to teach - but instead, it seems to be teaching students what to think by sabotaging the success of students who don't agree with decolonization.

   That's at least the impression you get from a lawsuit served upon the university by alumna Margaret Munn. She alleges she was subjected to unfair treatment and ideological pressure during her studies, including harassment-like behaviour from her faculty dean, and is now seeking more than $1 million in damages with the help of the Free Speech Union of Canada and her lawyer, Lisa Bildy. Her allegations are detailed in a statement of claim that has been made public, and have yet to be proven in court. Potentially years of proceedings lie ahead.

  The University of Western Ontario was only recently served and must file a statement of defence; its spokesperson, Stephen Ledgley, told the National Post on Friday that he was unable to comment on ongoing litigation."
   Essentially the same article by Sarkonak is also found under this title: "Education Student Punished For Questioning Decolonization Sues UWO," Postmedia Breaking News, May 26, 2025.