Poet George Elliott Clarke has withdrawn from his scheduled lecture at the University of Regina which sparked controversy after details of his relationship with a convicted killer came to light.
Clarke was invited to deliver the Woodrow Lloyd Lecture on Jan. 23. His talk is entitled "Truth and Reconciliation versus the Murdered and Missing: Examining Indigenous Experiences of Justice in Four Saskatchewan Poets."
Clarke has edited poetry by Steven Kummerfield, who now goes by the name Stephen Brown. Kummerfield and his friend Alex Ternowetsky were convicted of manslaughter in the beating death of Pamela George near the Regina airport in 1995. “My purpose in my talk was to discuss the role of poets in dealing with social issues, but that interest has been lost in the current controversy.”
In a statement released on Friday, the U of R said it is "committed to the principles of free speech, thought and expression," but "recognizes there is much work to do" on the road to reconciliation. The university said it will not seek a replacement speaker fo this year's event.
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