#garth stevenson

Val (2021)

Directed by Leo Scott & Ting Poo, Cinematography by Val Kilmer

Chappaquiddick (2017)

Directed by John Curran

Brock University is distancing itself from a retired political science professor whose social media accounts shared racist and derogatory messages aimed at Indigenous people this week.

In a Friday statement the university said it was moving to strip retired professor Garth Stevenson — formerly the head of Brock's political science department — of his status as a professor emeritus after posts on Stevenson's Facebook and Twitter accounts attacked Indigenous Canadians as "snivelling," and ignorant pagans who were making Canada "unfit for civilized people."

The posts expressed skepticism that Indigenous nations lived in Canada before the arrival of European settlers, that he would never speak to an Indigenous person again and told another Twitter user to die a painful death.

"Brock has no connection whatsoever with his view and abhors comments that have been posted on his social media sites," said the statement by Tom Dunk, Brock's provost and vice-president academic.

In an emailed statement late Friday evening, Stevenson defended his social media posts and called the issue a "tempest in a tea pot."

In addition to these comments, this professor also claimed that Indigenous people “don’t want civil rights” and that “Senator Beyak is right” in her claims that residential schools had a positive impact. He sent homophobic insults to someone who criticized John A. Macdonald and his residential school system. He thinks that describing a white person as white is insulting.