Suspended Ryerson University professor Gerald Hannon met the press today.
Appearing at Tallulah's Cabaret, the quiet-spoken journalism lecturer answered questions a day after Ryerson had suspended him until a review of his private life and views on 'intergenerational sex' is completed.
About half-a-dozen TV cameras and an audience of 50 filled the main floor and balcony for the event, held at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, a gay institution itself often under attack.
Cameras were at the ready as the conference participants made their entrance, some of them walking down a metal flight of stairs from the mezzanine.
A union rep, a colleague of Hannon's, a former student, a present student and others gave statements of support. Then the mikes were turned on Hannon.
'They didn't really say why I was being suspended' he said.
However, in the past few weeks Toronto Sun reporter Heather Bird has criticized Hannon for his support of 'intergenerational sex', with the tabloid headlining him as the 'prostitute prof' once it had learned Hannon supplemented his university income through prostitution.
He said the manner of the suspension, announced late Sunday and read to him over the phone, was 'thoroughly reprehensible'.
He said he never mentioned prostitution in class, and mentioned 'intergenerational sex' only when responding to students' questions or in referring to articles he had written in the past. He had been teaching magazine article writing to a class of senior journalism students.
In 1977 the gay and lesbian magazine The Body Politic published his article 'Men Loving Boys Loving Men'. He and two other members of the Body Politic collective were charged and eventually acquitted (in 1983).
He said he did not use his class as a 'platform' to discuss 'pedophiliac ideas' such as 'kiddie porn'--although he said he probably could make an intellectual case in defending it.
As for his personal life, he refuted one question from the audience by saying, 'Prostitution is not illegal. I am not doing anything illegal'.
He added, 'I did not contact the Toronto Sun with this information', but he wasn't trying to hide that part of his life.
'I'm not looking for publicity, believe me' he added.
He said the initial Sun columns (written by Heather Bird) were inaccurate. He said the reporter had sought out opinions of his students and could only find an anonymous student to criticize him.
'It seems to me reprehensible journalism if you have both sides of the story and you use only one side. Yes, that's leading up to a "smear campaign"', he said.
He said, 'I'm a good writer and a good teacher. Nothing has changed with the disclosure that I'm a prostitute'.
Like all of those who spoke in support of him at the news conference, he championed freedom of expression--particularly at a university.
'Keeping ideas off campus seems to be their idea of what's best for the university' he said of Ryerson administration.
As for complaints from parents, Hannon said students are exposed to ideas at university. Some of those ideas might be uncomfortable.
'The university is not "European Health Spa"' he said.