College yoga class canceled due to ‘oppression and cultural genocide’

A yoga class at the University of Ottawa, designed to include disabled students, was canceled due to concerns that the practice of yoga was taken from a culture that "experienced oppression," among other things.

The class, which has been at the school since 2008, was canceled via email to the instructor, Jennifer Scharf, the Washington Post reported. 

Scharf, who taught the 60-student class, said she received an email in September from a student representative from The Center for Students with Disabilities telling her the center chose not to take yoga classes through the rest of the year.

The center emailed the Ottawa Sun saying the cultures yoga has been adopted "have experienced oppression, cultural genocide and diasporas due to colonialism and Western supremacy."

Scharf proposed changing the class to "stretching for mental health" and suggested, "we don’t have to call it yoga (because that’s not really what we are doing, we are just stretching)."

In an interview with Radio Canada, student leader Roméo Ahimakin said there were not any direct complaints about the class. He said the decision to cancel yoga came as a result of reviewing all of the programs offered and an attempt "to make them more interesting, accessible, inclusive and responsive to the needs of students." 

On Monday, the University of Ottawa tweeted that free yoga classes are still offered on campus.

Contact Caitlin Lilly at clilly@reviewjournal.com. Find her on Twitter: @caitiesmith