Sergeant York returns.

Sgt York, bronzed

CBC News notes the return of the strange story in which Christian-nationalist and Republican activist Doug Mastriano received a doctorate in history from the University of New Brunswick -- for a dissertation that argued that the World War One feats of Medal of Honor winner Alvin York were the result of God's direct intervention on the battlefield. It also offered footnotes and interpretations that were vigorously questioned when a long-standing embargo on release of the dissertation ended.

CBC reports that Mastriano's attempt to sue the University of New Brunswick and Canadian scholars at the university and elsewhere for defamation have been dismissed by a court in Oklahoma because "UNB is an 'organ of a foreign state'" and the American court has no jurisdiction over it and other Canadians named.

This may be fortunate for UNB. The original acceptance of the much-criticized dissertation and the award of the doctorate provoked controversy within the university and beyond, and involvement in a defamation trial might have raised these issues once again. UNB launched an investigation of the matter in 2023. Apparently the results have not been released.

This blog last looked at the Mastriano story here in 2022, when Mastriano was running (unsuccessfully) to become governor of Pennsylvania.