P-06-1298 Petition for a Welsh Government inquiry into the campaign of trans rights activists at Cardiff University – Petitioner to Committee, 25.10.22

Dear sir/madam

Please see my response to Jeremy Miles's letter (see attached) below:

I am unhappy with the Education Minister’s response. Even if this affair does not formally lie within the competences of the Welsh Government, Cardiff University is the premier university of Wales. Therefore, the Senedd should ensure that the university maintains standards which are consistent with those expected in Welsh public life.

In this case, Cardiff University has engaged in egregious misconduct. At a protest on campus on 21 June 2021, protestors distributed a leaflet picturing a woman holding a gun, the names and pictures of the signatories of the letter, and the caption “ACT NOW”. Yet despite knowing the identity of the individual who produced the leaflets, Cardiff University failed to take any action or conduct a meaningful investigation.

Moreover, students threatened to kneecap and throat-punch signatories of the letter on social media. But despite knowing the identities of the students, the university took no action. Why did Damian Walford Davies, Deputy Vice-Chancellor, claim that a threat to throat punch academics was an expression of opinion and not ‘inciting violence or harassment’? Why did the university claim that such messages were the responsibility of Facebook, rather than the university? Would the university adopt this position in other cases of harassment which involve staff and/or students and take place on social media?    

In short, the university has engaged in a cover up, exposing academics to serious harassment and critically undermining freedom of speech. We call for a Senedd investigation into this affair.

Kind regards

Christian Wilton-King