Tell Deakin University to Publish Drew Fraser

Drew Fraser, a law professor at Australia’s Macquarie University, was suspended from his job earlier this year for publishing a letter in an Australian newspaper that said immigration risked turning the country into “a colony of the Third World.” Now Dr. Fraser faces a new attack. After the Deakin Law Review accepted an article he wrote defending the White Australia policy, a lawyer for Australia’s Sudanese community threatened to sue Deakin University for racial vilification if the journal published the article. Prof. Sally Walker, the Vice-Chancellor of Deakin University, has asked the journal to submit copies of the article to the university lawyer so he can consider the matter. Please write Prof. Walker at vc@deakin.edu.au to urge her to not to block publication of the article. As always, please be judicious in your choice of language. Inflammatory and insulting e-mails do more harm than good. If you do not wish to compose your own message, you may use the recommended text below.

Example text:

Dear Professor Walker,

I have learned from press reports that the Deakin Law Review has accepted an article from Prof. Drew Fraser of Macquarie University that some will find controversial. I understand there is pressure on your university to stop publication of the article.

I hope you will resist this pressure. Prof. Fraser’s ideas should stand or fall on their own merits. It would be a serious defeat for free speech if Prof. Fraser is silenced simply because some people do not want to hear what he has to say.

Dissent, even if it gives offence, is one of the hallmarks of a free, democratic society, and I urge you to hold fast against those who would take away this freedom.

Sincerely yours,