University of Calgary Announces Tom Flanagan’s Retirement after Condemned Child Pornography Remarks

By Chris Purdy
National Post
March 1, 2013

http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/02/28/ex-harper-advisor-tom-flanagan-apologizes-after-widespread-condemnation-of-appalling-child-porn-remarks/

Greg Fulmes/Postmedia News filesWidespread condemnation has forced University of Calgary professor and former advisor to Stephen Harper, Tom Flanagan - pictured here in 2007 - to apologize for suggesting that people shouldn't be jailed for looking at child pornography.

Former Stephen Harper strategist Tom Flanagan has been widely and swiftly condemned for suggesting that people shouldn’t be jailed for looking at child pornography.

The remarks will end the distinguished career of the University of Calgary political science professor on a sour note as the university announced his retirement.

“Comments made by Tom Flanagan in Lethbridge yesterday absolutely do not represent the views of the University of Calgary. In the university’s view, child pornography is not a victimless crime,” University of Calgary president Elizabeth Cannon said in a statement.

She said Flanagan was already on leave and would remain so until his retirement on June 30, 2013. Flanagan had submitted his retirement papers in January but the university had not announced it.

Flanagan made the controversial remark during a lecture Wednesday night in southern Alberta. His words were recorded on a cellphone and quickly posted on YouTube.

It didn’t take long for people to start cutting ties.

By noon Thursday, the CBC dumped Flanagan as a panellist on its Power and Politics program. The University of Calgary, where he is a political science professor, issued a statement distancing itself from his views and then hours later announced his retirement.

In a statement attributed to him on the CBC website, Flanagan was apologetic to anyone he offended. He said he absolutely condemns child sex abuse.

“In an academic setting, I raised a theoretical question about how far criminalization should extend toward the consumption of pornography,” reads the statement posted on the blog of Kady O’Malley, also a panellist on Power and Politics.

“My words were badly chosen, and in the resulting uproar I was not able to express my abhorrence of child pornography and the sexual abuse of children.

Flanagan did not return calls or emails from The Canadian Press.

He was giving the lecture on the Indian Act at the University of Lethbridge, hosted by the Southern Alberta Council on Public Affairs. He has written several books about aboriginal issues and believes the government should allow property rights on reserves.