Chilliwack school trustee Darrell Furgason is calling YouTube videos featuring school board candidate Carin Bondar “soft porn” and “hate speech.”
Bondar is a part-time instructor at the University of the Fraser Valley (UFV), and Furgason has sent an email to UFV president Joanne MacLean expressing his concern about “sexualized images being presented to the public.”
The video drawing the most attention is a parody of a Miley Cyrus ‘Wrecking Ball’ music video where Bondar is mostly seen in underwear and boots and is briefly seen without clothes. In the Miley Cyrus version, the singer licks a sledgehammer. In Bondar’s video, produced in 2014, she licks a microscope.
The video is titled ‘Organisms do Evolve‘ and Bondar called the video presentation “cheeky.”
Furgason disagreed with that characterization.
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“There is nothing ‘cheeky’ in them at all,” he said in his email to MacLean. “Rather, they are soft porn, with Dr Bondar being naked in the video, writhing on the floor in her underwear, and performing oral sex on a microscope. This has nothing to do with science. The whole video is also a form of hate speech in my opinion, where she is mocking the creation beliefs of the Christian community, not only here, but worldwide through YouTube.”
Bondar said she stands by the video and her approach of using a measure of shock and artistic presentation to get her messages across as a scientist.
“I cannot understand how this particular video communicates anything ‘scientific’ to anyone,” Furgason wrote. “She is also sending a very bad message to young girls, showing that nudity and sex gets attention. In fact, she states, ‘sex sells.’ This is demeaning to women, and our culture has worked hard to portray women as more than naked bodies.
“I am deeply concerned for the young male (and female) students in Chilliwack who will see these videos if she is elected to the school board.”
Furgason said the videos also reflect poorly on UFV.
“It can do nothing but detract from the image of UFV as a university that is serious about promoting a positive image to the community of academic excellence, moral values, and an institution that welcomes people from all religious backgrounds.”
While MacLean declined to respond to the Furgason vs Bondar email, UFV did release a short statement through its communications office.
“As a university, UFV must comply with restrictions in the University Act that state that the university is to be non-sectarian and non-political in principle. As a result, UFV does not comment, participate, or intervene in any political campaign on behalf of or opposition to any candidate for public office.”
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