A free on-campus yoga class was canceled after student leaders cited concern that it was a form of "cultural appropriation."
The yoga class at the University of Ottawa ended the class after staff at the Centre for Students with Disabilities said in an email that "while yoga is a really great idea and accessible and great for students … there are cultural issues of implication involved in the practice."
According to the Ottawa Sun, the center's staff said that yoga has been under a lot of controversy. The staff argues that the cultures that yoga is taken from has "...experienced oppression, cultural genocide and diasporas due to colonialism and western supremacy ... we need to be mindful of this and how we express ourselves while practicing yoga."
Jennifer Scharf, who taught the class, was told in September that the program would be suspended.
The free class had roughly 60 students.
