AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.

We end today’s show with a look at the alarming rise in censorship on university campuses across the United States. Last month, New York University abruptly canceled a presentation by the former international head of Doctors Without Borders, Médecins Sans Frontières, because some of her slides could be viewed as, quote, “anti-governmental.”

Dr. Joanne Liu, a Canadian pediatric emergency medicine physician, a professor of clinical medicine at McGill University and the former international president of Doctors Without Borders, was scheduled to speak at NYU, her alma mater, in March. She had been invited over a year ago to discuss the challenges of humanitarian crises. But the night before her speech, NYU’s vice chair of the Education Department called her to express concern over the content of some of her slides about casualties in Gaza and cuts at the U.S. Agency for International Development. She offered to make edits, but three hours later, she was told her presentation was canceled.

In an op-ed in a French newspaper describing how elite universities are in the crosshairs of presidential cuts, Dr. Liu said she was “astonished by the institution’s posture of preemptive over-obedience.” Dr. Joanne Liu joins us now from Canada.

Welcome to Democracy Now! Explain exactly what happened, Dr. Liu.

DR. JOANNE LIU: Good morning. Yes, sure.

So, as you said, I was invited several months ahead, and it’s my alma mater. It was the first time they invited me since I graduated in the ’90s. So, you have to understand that for me it was a moment of rejoice and happiness of being invited back.

And so, the title of the presentation was “Challenges in Humanitarian Crises.” And I was covering what have happened over the last year, because things have changed. This is a normal and regular lecture that I gave, but I always update it on a regular basis. So, basically, I went to New York, and then I had submitted my presentation on the platform. And then they, as soon as I arrived, because I was living at a friend’s house, just said — by working in the ER at NYU, said, “By the way, the administration wants to talk to you.”

And then I end up talking with the lady from the education, the vice chair. And she said, “Well, listen, what do you have to say about your presentation?” I said, “Not much, but I think you have concerns. Do you want to share them with me?” And then she tells me that there was a slide that she thought that could be troubling the audience, and it could be perceived antisemitic because I was showing the number of casualties in conflict zones in aid workers. And it is an extract from the Aid Worker Security Database. And, of course, there is a fair amount of casualty in Gaza, knowing what is happening right now, but in other countries, as well, like Sudan, like South Sudan and Ukraine. In addition to that, she said, “Well, we think that it could possibly be perceived, as well, as anti-governmental, the way you talk about the U.S. cuts, the picture of Zelensky and Trump.”

So, I let her speak, and I said, “OK.” I said, “What do you want to do about that? Do you want to offer me some suggestion where I could either change the presentation, nuances how I’m going to articulate things. You know what? I’m chill. I’m really chill. I’m flexible. I want this to be a good moment.” And then she hesitated. And then I said, “OK.” And then, a few minutes after, I said, “Let me offer those three slides. I will remove. As long as I can keep the key, overarching message, I am fine. I can manage that.” And she said, “OK, listen, I’ll get back to you in a few hours.”

And basically, three hours later, I got a phone call, and the lady was really — I would say that she was really sad, anyway. I sensed some sadness. And she said, “Listen, I’m very sorry, but we’ve been talking for the last three hours, and I have to inform you that we have decided to cancel your conference.”

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Dr. Liu, you were for six years the president of Doctors Without Borders, one of the most prestigious medical groups in the world. Have you ever had a talk canceled before?

DR. JOANNE LIU: Actually, when a talk is canceled, it’s because I’m canceling it, but not the other way around. And it happened because for security circumstances or changes, and I could not attend. But it happened really rarely. It was from my side.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And were you — your reaction to when they told you it was canceled?

DR. JOANNE LIU: So, my reaction was I was stunned. I actually — it was not part of my scenario. I’m someone who always planned for worst-case scenario, but I could not imagine that case scenario, because these are my friends. And it was a moment of being reunited. We haven’t seen each other for a while. And they sent me regularly, I would say, emailed to me how excited they were. They told me, “Some of our staff has seen your presentation a few years ago.” They said, “You brought tears to their eyes because the content is so moving. We are so excited.” So I just thought that we would manage to find, I would say, a middle ground in all that. So, yes, completely stunned and, of course, disappointed.

AMY GOODMAN: So, in your presentation, as you mentioned, you included a table from the Aid Worker Security Database that shows one of the places with the — one of the places with the highest humanitarian casualties last year was the Gaza Strip. And you were told you could be perceived as antisemitic if you talked about this, and also, if you talked about USAID, perceived as anti-governmental. Respond to both, Dr. Liu, and what your international humanitarian work is all about.

DR. JOANNE LIU: Well, with respect to that slide is, it was not specifically, I would say, on Gaza. It was the compilation of number of casualties in conflict zone in aid worker community. And this is what I was trying to explain to the person, because, as I said, yes, this is the reason why we don’t see casualties on the other side, because it’s about aid worker.

For the cut on USAID, you just covered it, you know, in the disaster that’s happening in Myanmar, in your show earlier. It’s massive. It’s massive. The generosity of U.S. over the last years, if not decades, has been massive. They were covering the overseas developmental aid, you know, up to 30%. In terms of humanitarian aid, according to numbers, it’s something between 40 to 45% on a yearly basis. So, of course, when you do that abruptly, there’s going to be consequences.

And so, when you look in the figures, one of the things I was bringing forward is how it’s going to impact the HIV/AIDS program, where, actually, one of the most saving programs is an American program, is PEPFAR, is the presidential program to fight HIV/AIDS. And people expect there’s going to be several hundreds of thousands of kids who might die, and patients. And there’s going to be a rise in terms of numbers, because mothers who are HIV-positive will not have access to antiretroviral medicine and will transmit the infection to their child during birth. So, it’s massive, the impact.

And I was just talking, because my presentation, basically, it’s on three pillars. It talks about how to attract attention when a crisis happens, the security now in a conflict zone and in crisis time, and then the third pillar was on funding.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: We only have about 30 seconds left, but there was also news that USAID is moving to end funding for the Gavi, the global Vaccine Alliance, that provides lifesaving vaccines for millions of poor children around the world. Your response?

DR. JOANNE LIU: Yes, I think it’s going to be disaster, of course.

But I would like, before we end the show, the reason why I wrote this letter is the fact that I truly and strongly believe that universities are the temple of knowledge, but, as well, of plurality of ideas. And if we do not allow that, we are basically killing the essence of what university is about. It’s about having people to be able to express a different point of view in a safety environment, where, as well, students can be exposed to it and make up their mind. That is what is necessary, and that is what makes a university, even a country, stronger, by plurality of ideas.

AMY GOODMAN: We do have 20 seconds. You are an alum of NYU. In this 20 seconds, what do you think the students lost in not hearing your speech?

DR. JOANNE LIU: Well, I think they lost the fact of getting a sort of a different point of view of someone who has been, how we say, a field aid worker. So, basically, I worked from being on ground zero to the leadership role, and I was giving, basically, the whole spectrum of what it means doing aid work nowadays.

AMY GOODMAN: Dr. Joanne Liu, we thank you so much for being with us, Canadian pediatric emergency medicine physician, associate professor of medicine at University of Montreal, professor of clinical medicine at McGill University and former head of Doctors Without Borders.