University of Ottawa Cancels Yoga Classes Over Cultural Appropriation Claims

In the meantime, many people are calling out the University of Ottawa Student Federation for taking political correctness too far; but if anything, it opens up a conversation about how we practice yoga.

“[No] one attended the classes so that’s why we ended them, its not that hard to understand people, the fact that disabled people are getting harrassed [sic] over this is ridiculous”, the university’s Centre for Students with Disabilities said Monday via Facebook in response to criticism of its decision.

“While yoga is a really great idea and accessible and great for students… there are cultural issues of implication involved in the practice”, one read.

Yoga instructor Jennifer Scharf, who taught a class at the CSD since 2008, told the CBC on Sunday that she learned in September the class wouldn’t be happening because several staff members and students were uncomfortable with “cultural issues”.

“People are just looking for a reason to be offended by anything they can find”, Scharf told the Sunday.

“There’s a real divide between reasonable people and those people who are just looking to jump on the bandwagon”.

The decision from the president didn’t take into account the good that the yoga class brought many students on the college campus.

Scharf says she offered the student body leaders a compromise by suggesting she change the name of the course to “mindful stretching”, but after a few debate, they couldn’t reach an agreement.

She has also said she is open to teaching the class in a “more accessible” form, but has yet found a place or organization on campus to host it.

Meanwhile, yoga classes have been put on hiatus.

“This particular class was intro to beginners’ yoga because I’m very sensitive to this issue”, she told The Washington Post.

Scharf, however, said she never meant to insult or exclude anyone with her class.

Scharf was sorry to hear of the cancellation – attributed by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation to the University of Ottawa Student Federation, which describes itself as the “instrument of political action” for the undergraduate population at the university.

Not everyone at the student federation agreed, including Julie Seguin, who told the Sun, “a single complaint does not outweigh all of the good that these classes have done”. Yoga has been appropriated by westerners from Hinduism, which, as the main religion of India, suffered oppression by British colonists. Many are criticizing the claims of cultural appropriation as being absurd.

Speaking to the Ottawa Sun, Ms Scharf said that arguments of cultural appropriation did not apply to the programme at the university. “Imagine how much good they’re doing for themselves”.