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Raymond luc levasseur

AMHERST - Proponents of a planned talk by a former member of a radical group that was canceled by University of Massachusetts officials this week decry the cancellation as an affront to free speech.

Meanwhile, there is a move afoot to find another venue for the talk by Raymond Luc Levasseur, a convicted domestic terrorist.

Levasseur had been scheduled to come to the UMass campus for a talk intended to shed light on the motivations behind terrorism and political violence.

After an outcry about his appearance, it was canceled, a move Amber Eastman Black, a Southampton resident and UMass graduate who had planned to hear Levasseur speak, criticized Friday.

"This was not intended to be a coronation for Ray Levasseur, this was a symposium to debate and discuss difficult issues that are relevant today," she said. "I feel that any university, in particular my alma mater, should be the last bastion of free speech."

Levasseur's appearance was canceled after objections were raised by police groups and Gov. Deval Patrick. Critics said the cancellation was the respectful thing to do for the families of terror victims and police. A member of the United Freedom Front, a subversive group to which Levasseur belonged, murdered a New Jersey state trooper in 1981.

"Like the other Massachusetts chiefs, we were all concerned about the public university which was going to have him on board as a guest lecturer," said Amherst Police Chief Scott P. Livingstone. "Needless to say we're happy the university made this decision."

Eastman Black said UMass is losing an opportunity to gain perspective on domestic terrorists by canceling Levasseur's address.

"If it's appropriate for him to be a free citizen, why isn't it appropriate of him to come to the university and talk about his actions and his views," she said.

Organizers now are seeking a new venue for the talk, and are hoping it will be rescheduled.

Levasseur, 63, had been scheduled to speak at the UMass Campus Center Nov. 12 about his perspective on sedition and to reflect on his experiences including a stint in the Vietnam War; being arrested along with members of the "Ohio 7;" and being incarcerated for 20 years for his involvement in a series of bombings of New England government buildings.

"Things are changing as we speak," said Jamila Levasseur, Levasseur's wife, who was reached by telephone at their Maine home Friday afternoon. She said her husband was away at work when the Gazette called. A message left for Ray Levasseur was not returned.

Jamila Levasseur said in the five years since he has been out on parole, a speaking engagement for her husband has been canceled on one other occasion. In that situation, organizers were able to find a substitute venue. In her view, Levasseur's canceled address is an infringement on freedom of speech.

"A state-run organization is going to allow the police to dictate what they can and can't do on campus," she said. "That's ridiculous."

The UMass library department, which was hosting Levasseur as the capstone lecture in the department's "Social Change" colloquium, decided Thursday to cancel his appearance when it became apparent the event was "untenable," said UMass spokesman Edward F. Blaguszewski.

The university had been contacted by numerous people, including Patrick and police organizations concerned about the perceived honor giving Levasseur a forum presents. Protests were planned for the address, Blaguszewski said.

"It just wasn't going to work the way the library wanted it to work. They decided it would be counterproductive to hold the event," Blaguszewski said.

"I can't speculate in terms of who might have shown up," Blaguszewski said of anticipated protesters, "but there were certainly many people who were upset."

UMass has hosted controversial speakers before, said Blaguszewski, including Chief of Staff under President George W. Bush Andrew Card and Louis Farrakhan, the national representative for the Nation of Islam. Although these events drew critics, Blaguszewski said the response did not rise to the level of the outcry over the Levasseur event.

"This one has probably prompted the strongest concern by a large number of people," he said.

This is the fifth year the UMass Special Collections and University Archives has presented the "Colloquium on Social Change."

Other speakers who took part in the 2009 event were: Blake Slonecker, a Waldorf College counterculture professor; Todd Gitlin, a central figure in the 1960s civil rights movement; and Raymond Mungo, founder of the Liberation News Service, an alternative antiwar news provider.

"The UMass Libraries developed this forum as an opportunity to focus on terrorism, one of the most difficult social issues confronting the country," said Robert Cox, head of Special Collections and University Archives, in a statement.

"Continuing with this talk would be counterproductive," Cox said of the Levasseur address. "The libraries will continue to seek avenues to explore significant issues of social change."

Levasseur is a French-Canadian native who grew up in Sanford, Maine, enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1967 during the Vietnam War. In 1969 he was convicted in Tennessee on a drug possession charge (marijuana) and sentenced to five years in prison.

Following his release, Levasseur became an activist for convicts and veterans. It was around this time Levasseur's actions became criminal.

Levasseur was on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted List 1977-1984 for a string of bank robberies and bombings of government buildings in New England for which the Sam Melville-Jonathan Jackson Unit (later named the United Freedom Front) terrorist group claimed responsibility.

The bombings Levasseur was arrested for included the 1976 explosion in the Suffolk Superior Courthouse. Levasseur was acquitted of this crime in 1989 following a 10-month U.S. District Court sedition trial in Springfield.