A professor at Dalhousie University has cancelled a debate on racial diversity, calling the ideas of his American challenger too offensive to be voiced on campus.

David Divine, the university's chair in black Canadian studies, scrapped the January event after reading up on writer Jared Taylor.

"It's all about providing a public stage for views which are considered by many Canadians as deeply, deeply offensive," said Divine.

Taylor, editor of American Renaissance magazine, opposes immigration, which he says leads to violence and conflict. He also says traits such as intelligence, sexual promiscuity and criminality are linked to race.

Divine says he wasn't aware of Taylor's beliefs when he agreed to debate the strengths and weaknesses of racial diversity on Jan. 15, Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

The public event has been advertised on Stormfront, a white supremacist website. One posting urges "like-minded Canadian allies" to show up to support "our side."

The posting also said Paul Fromm, a political activist with ties to Ernst Zundel and David Duke, might attend.

Taylor calls Divine's pullout an affront to the principles of free speech and accuses him of cancelling the public event out of fear he would lose.

"Anyone who reflects seriously and honestly about human nature and human history and morality will come to exactly the same conclusions I have come to," Taylor said.

But Divine says academic debate has its limits.

Instead of a debate on Jan. 15, Divine will give a lecture on diversity including a summary of Taylor's views.