I spoke with Ottawa Police Services media relations officer Alain Boucher this morning, and he told me, in no uncertain terms, that it was her security team that made the decision to call off the event. "We gave her options" -- including, he said, to "find a bigger venue" -- but "they opted to cancel ... It's not up to the Ottawa police to make that decision."
She has a right to say what she wants, but other people have a right to speak out against her too. François Houle didn't bar her from speaking at the university, he just sent her a letter telling her what he thought of her. I don't buy that it's all his fault that there were protesters. Coulter should just take her ball and go home.
He sent her a not-so-veiled threat that if she said something he (or other lefty protester types) didn't like, she could expect consequences.Was it a threat or a warning? It's not that he doesn't want her to say something that he doesn't agree with; it seems that he and others were concerned that her talk would include hate-speech, which given her track-record, isn't a very far-fetched concern. If this happened to an American right-winger who wanted to talk about health care then I would agree with what you're saying, but this is someone who promotes discrimination. You're not allowed to incite hatred against a specific group of people in Canada, and saying that Muslims shouldn't be allowed to fly on airplanes incites hatred
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Was it a threat or a warning? It's not that he doesn't want her to say something that he doesn't agree with; it seems that he and others were concerned that her talk would include hate-speech, which given her track-record, isn't a very far-fetched concern.
It was Ezra Levant who was her Canadian wingman for the speech (and will be the other stops on the tour)! He's familiar with Canadian hate speech laws ten ways to Sunday. She didn't need an academic from the University of Ottawa to school her on them.
I think there was an enormous amount of disorganization and confusion. And there was real uncertainty about the intentions of the protesters or how they would react if, for example, they spotted Coulter. All these things weighed upon the final decision and responsibility must be apportioned accordingly. I realize that doesn't make for a satisfyingly clear and concise story but it not only accords with the evidence it is in line with how things typically unfold in
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This is something that's been bothering me for quite some time now. Often when a conservative speaker comes to speak at a university they're met with organised opposition, protests and attempts to silence them either by shouting over them at the speeches or preventing the speeches altogether.
Universities are supposed to be an institution when there is an exchange of ideas. Plugging your ears and yelling "LALALALALALA, I CAN'T HEAR YOU" isn't fostering that ideal.
Obviously we're not going on everything as humans. Not all leftist ideas are wrong nor are all right wing ideas wrong. The answer is somewhere in the middle but how can we find the middle when we constantly shout over or prevent the people on either side of the issue from stating their case?
I hate how polarized we are these days. Maybe it was always like this, I don't know. It seems to have gotten worse in the last decade.
I think the polarization is way worse in the US. We don't have the likes of Glenn Beck and Keith Olbermann stoking the flames up here, and even talk radio isn't nearly as vile as it is in your country. We have conservative talk radio in pretty much every major city, but it's a local phenomenon - there are no nationally-syndicated hosts.
This is something that's been bothering me for quite some time now. Often when a conservative speaker comes to speak at a university they're met with organised opposition, protests and attempts to silence them either by shouting over them at the speeches or preventing the speeches altogether.At Concordia University, where I went, there were international headlines back in... 2003?, when Benjamin Netanyahu was scheduled to speak, and protesters stormed and briefly took over the first couple of floors of the building where his event was to happen. His event was cancelled by police and campus security. At the time, the protesters claimed they were preventing a "war criminal" from speaking
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I actually don't mind this at all. What on earth Ann Coulter, who presents nothing but hate speech ideology, was doing being invited to speak at a Canadian venue of any sort is beyond me. I like living here and one of the reasons I like living here is laws against hate speech and not the absolute free for all the US First Amendment has been subjected to. Not every speech has a message worth hearing and people spoke loud and clear they didn't want her there. If you're upset more left wing speakers aren't protested, I suggest you get to protesting.
people spoke loud and clear they didn't want her there.
Some people. Was attendance at her speech required for any of their courses? If not, I don't see what business it is of theirs until she breaks one of our laws.
If you're upset more left wing speakers aren't protested, I suggest you get to protesting.
You're excused for having misread. I'm not upset that more lefty speakers are prevented from speaking, I'm upset that when this nonsense goes down, 10-1 odds that the protesters responsible are from the left. Don't taze me, bro!
LOL. Thing is free speech means people have a right to say 'that's not cool' and as Saraline said, they WERE offered another venue and refused. This is the same shit Netenyahu pulled and later Ehud Barak. They were both told "hell no not downtown, go to Loyola" and they insisted they wanted downtown billing even though security would have been much easier and safer for everyone at Loyola. There are several administrators convinced neither ever intended to speak but instead just to whip the SPHR crowd into a frothing mess (mission accomplished, sadly) since they all out refused any sort of reasonable compromise which would have allowed them to speak. IMHO this is precisely what Coulter did, and it's also why her HRC complaint will fail. (Not that I don't, in general, agree with your skeptical glance toward HRCs).
I think the best possible outcome would be that Coulter shows up, speaks to her little wingnut crowd of a dozen maladjusted malcontents, and leaves with little ceremony. I deeply, deeply loathe her, but this media circus is precisely what she hopes to create: free publicity, media relevance, a martyrdom narrative to sell, and so on. She's just an internet troll manifesting IRL, and the cardinal rule is: don't feed the trolls. Protesting her is like Christians picketing Marilyn Manson concerts: you're just selling more tickets. Go home, do something else.
If you're very clever and have sufficient memetic clout and/or savvy, genuinely comedic parody is a very effective way of denying a celebrity's cultural capital (e.g. Scientology's numbers have dropped since they've become a punchline to jokes). But anger begets bunker mentality begets polarization begets proselytization (just ask the early Christians how being fed to lions worked out for their enrollment: actually, really wellHer complaint is about as sincere as a televangelist's
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I spoke with Ottawa Police Services media relations officer Alain Boucher this morning, and he told me, in no uncertain terms, that it was her security team that made the decision to call off the event. "We gave her options" -- including, he said, to "find a bigger venue" -- but "they opted to cancel ... It's not up to the Ottawa police to make that decision."
She has a right to say what she wants, but other people have a right to speak out against her too. François Houle didn't bar her from speaking at the university, he just sent her a letter telling her what he thought of her. I don't buy that it's all his fault that there were protesters. Coulter should just take her ball and go home.
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He sent her a not-so-veiled threat that if she said something he (or other lefty protester types) didn't like, she could expect consequences.
Rita Valeriano was one of several protesters inside the hall who, with chants of “Coulter go home!”, shouted down the International Free Press Society of Canada organizer who was addressing the crowd.
Valeriano, a 19-year-old sociology and women’s studies student, said later that she was happy Coulter was unable to speak the “hatred” she had planned to.
“On campus, we promise our students a safe and positive space,” she said. “And that’s not what (Coulter) brings.”If you read the straight-up news reports from the event, it's pretty clear that the intent of the protesters was to prevent the speech from happening in the first place. I read someone suggest today that it would probably be smoother to have Mahmoud Ahmedinejad speak at a Canadian university than Ann Coulter ( ... )
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It was Ezra Levant who was her Canadian wingman for the speech (and will be the other stops on the tour)! He's familiar with Canadian hate speech laws ten ways to Sunday. She didn't need an academic from the University of Ottawa to school her on them.
As usual, I rather like what Dan Gardner has to say on the matter:
I think there was an enormous amount of disorganization and confusion. And there was real uncertainty about the intentions of the protesters or how they would react if, for example, they spotted Coulter. All these things weighed upon the final decision and responsibility must be apportioned accordingly. I realize that doesn't make for a satisfyingly clear and concise story but it not only accords with the evidence it is in line with how things typically unfold in ( ... )
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Universities are supposed to be an institution when there is an exchange of ideas. Plugging your ears and yelling "LALALALALALA, I CAN'T HEAR YOU" isn't fostering that ideal.
Obviously we're not going on everything as humans. Not all leftist ideas are wrong nor are all right wing ideas wrong. The answer is somewhere in the middle but how can we find the middle when we constantly shout over or prevent the people on either side of the issue from stating their case?
I hate how polarized we are these days. Maybe it was always like this, I don't know. It seems to have gotten worse in the last decade.
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This is something that's been bothering me for quite some time now. Often when a conservative speaker comes to speak at a university they're met with organised opposition, protests and attempts to silence them either by shouting over them at the speeches or preventing the speeches altogether.At Concordia University, where I went, there were international headlines back in... 2003?, when Benjamin Netanyahu was scheduled to speak, and protesters stormed and briefly took over the first couple of floors of the building where his event was to happen. His event was cancelled by police and campus security. At the time, the protesters claimed they were preventing a "war criminal" from speaking ( ... )
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Some people. Was attendance at her speech required for any of their courses? If not, I don't see what business it is of theirs until she breaks one of our laws.
If you're upset more left wing speakers aren't protested, I suggest you get to protesting.
You're excused for having misread. I'm not upset that more lefty speakers are prevented from speaking, I'm upset that when this nonsense goes down, 10-1 odds that the protesters responsible are from the left. Don't taze me, bro!
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If you're very clever and have sufficient memetic clout and/or savvy, genuinely comedic parody is a very effective way of denying a celebrity's cultural capital (e.g. Scientology's numbers have dropped since they've become a punchline to jokes). But anger begets bunker mentality begets polarization begets proselytization (just ask the early Christians how being fed to lions worked out for their enrollment: actually, really wellHer complaint is about as sincere as a televangelist's ( ... )
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