In September 2022, following an accusation of ‘Islamophobia’, Collin May was dismissed from his post as director of the Alberta Human Rights Commission (AHRC). May’s new book, From Cancel Culture to Incarceration Culture: Prosecutorial Democracy and the Future of Cancellation, not only documents his own bitter experience of cancellation but also assembles a collection of his own published essays, deeply rooted in the expanding literature on the wider issues around cancel culture.

In common with many of those against whom such allegations are made, May is an unlikely Islamophobe. Among other things, he has degrees in law, political philosophy and Islamic studies from Harvard and the École des hautes études en sciences sociales in Paris. He is a qualified lawyer, university lecturer and human-rights activist – focussing on LGBTQ+ rights, health-equity issues relating to indigenous and elderly people, and academic freedom. He has also worked for the International Committee of the Red Cross.

The campaign to unseat May, an openly gay Christian conservative, began in the spring of 2022, not long after he was appointed to the AHRC. The left-wing Alberta New Democratic Party (NDP) was quick to denounce his appointment as an attempt by Alberta’s conservative government to further its political agenda. That July, Duncan Kinney, an NDP-affiliated blogger, publicised a review by May, which appeared in 2009. This was about the book Islamic Imperialism: A History, published by Yale University Press and authored by Efraim Karsh, a distinguished though controversial history professor at King’s College London. As May stated in a 2024 interview: ‘Both my review and professor Karsh’s book were characterised as “Islamophobic”, racist and hate speech. My review was even linked to violence against black Muslim women in hijab in Alberta more than 10 years after its publication.’

He adds that, in the review:

‘I noted that Professor Karsh, in his own non-orientalist approach, referred to Islam as a highly imperialist and militaristic religion. The NDP-affiliated blogger who wrote the first piece on my review wrongly attributed this view to me while ignoring the context and nuances of my review. Indeed, he ignored the very next sentence following my statement of Karsh’s position, which started with the words: “But we need to be careful here…” As it turns out, none of my critics were even remotely careful when it came to attacking me.’

Even though views such as those expressed by Karsh have been endorsed by scholars and commentators for centuries, May was soon denounced by some leading Canadian Muslims.

Faisal Bhabha, a law professor at Toronto’s York University, questioned his commitment to ‘combating Islamophobia’. Sadique Pathan, an imam at Edmonton’s Al Rashid Mosque, accused May of ‘Islamophobia or outright racist views towards Muslims’. The National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM) also demanded that May be dismissed. Still, he refused to apologise. In September 2022, he was sacked from the AHRC ostensibly for having failed to prioritise meetings with the Muslim community, and for threatening to sue his critics for defamation.

May claims that his determination to fight back against his demonisation was boosted by the support received from many quarters, including Jews, Muslims, immigrants and the LGBTQ+ community. Now, May is suing the government of Alberta for unfair dismissal, and the NCCM plus Duncan Kinney for defamation.

From Cancel Culture to Incarceration Culture is a stimulating and fluently written book. May argues that far from being over, as some commentators maintain, cancel culture is morphing. Once it was driven by social-media activists. Now, it is rapidly becoming a state strategy aimed at silencing those who dissent from the core cultural assumptions of governing elites. In his view, this new iteration, ‘incarceration culture’, is being initiated and managed by a range of legal and administrative measures, including fines and imprisonment – ‘prosecutorial democracy’, as he calls it.

There can be little doubt that official agencies – including universities, the police and government departments – are increasingly attempting to cancel those who dissent from the received wisdom that certain minorities should be protected from criticism. Arguably there may, as yet, be insufficient evidence to call this ‘incarceration culture’ and ‘prosecutorial democracy’. But there are, nevertheless, disturbing indications that officially sanctioned silencing may be heading in this direction.

What matters most now is less the labelling than the observing, monitoring and debating of what is happening. May’s book makes a splendid contribution to achieving all of these things.

From Cancel Culture to Incarceration Culture: Prosecutorial Democracy and the Future of Cancellation, by Colin May, is published by Academica Press.

Steven Greer is emeritus professor at the University of Bristol Law School and research director at the Oxford Institute for British Islam, an independent progressive Muslim think-tank. His book, Islamophobia and Free Speech, was published earlier this year.