Nearly four weeks after a masked individual dumped water over the head of Dr. Tom Flanagan, a professor emeritus at the University of Calgary, soaking half of me in the process, our debate is still making news. This time, it’s on the walls of a campus art gallery.

DEBATE: Were residential schools genocide?

Watch the peaceful debate until a masked, trans-identifying coward assaulted an elderly professor, soaking half of me in the process. https://t.co/4xOdds8D9k

— Drea Humphrey (@DreaHumphrey) October 9, 2026

As first reported by LiveWire Calgary, mother-and-son artists Glenna Cardinal and Seth Cardinal Dodginghorse of Tsuut’ina Nation removed seven of their pieces from the “Held Together” exhibit at the university’s Nickle Galleries on Oct. 8. In the empty spaces, they left sage and printed copies of a letter explaining why.

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CBC and CTV picked up the story this week, but left out the part that matters: what was actually said at our table. Had the mother-son duo actually watched the full debate, or had the state broadcaster repeating their claims bothered to report it, they would know it never included denying that harms took place in residential schools. In fact, I spoke about some of those harms myself.

Instead, in the 90 minutes leading up to the assault on Sept. 29, students stepped up to peacefully debate us at a table set up by Canadian Students for Free Speech.

No racism, lies or hate. Just debate.

The truth doesn’t need safe spaces. It needs spaces where people can find it. And the truth is, the art at the University of Calgary was never at risk. Free speech was, and apparently some people want to keep it that way.