Coulter protesters attack free speech: Levant
Free speech advocates say university administrators should be embarrassed that protesters forced right-wing firebrand Ann Coulter to cancel her appearance at the University of Ottawa, an event they claim is an attack on Canadian freedoms.
Coulter, a well-known U.S. media personality, was due to make an appearance at the university on Tuesday evening, as part of a three-city tour of Canadian campuses. But the event was called off after hundreds of screaming protesters showed up and organizers deemed it to be too dangerous to continue.
Conservative political activist Ezra Levant, who spoke on behalf of the organizers on Tuesday evening, said "it would be physically dangerous for Ann Coulter to proceed with this event."
Following the cancellation, Coulter told the Washington Times that the university was a "bush league" institution and suggested "their IQ points-to-teeth ratio must be about 1-to-1." She told the newspaper that "this has never happened before."
CTV's Daniele Hamamdjian said "a combination of overcapacity and utter disorganization" contributed to the collapse of the event.
Prior to the cancellation, Hamamdjian said only a small number of students were tasked with verifying the names of the people who had signed up to attend Coulter's talk.
"It was a disaster in terms of just organization, which is probably one of the reasons why it was cancelled," Hamamdjian told CTV News Channel from Ottawa on Wednesday morning.
Police eventually showed up to the scene and blocked the door to the building, but Hamamdjian said she doubted whether the combination of protesters and disorganization actually constituted "a physical risk to Ann Coulter."
The event fuelled news stories that ran across the country, all of which fed on the apparent uproar Coulter's visit caused on the Ottawa campus.
Levant denounces protesters' tactics
Earlier Wednesday, Levant spoke to CTV's Canada AM, denouncing the tactics used by the protesters the night before.
"Last night, I went on a Facebook page for some of the protesters and there were clear calls for violence. And not just in an abstract way, I mean there were instructions to bring vegetables and eggs to throw," Levant said during an interview from Ottawa on Wednesday morning.
While Levant acknowledged that he did not believe anyone would have been killed by the behaviours that some of the protesters were engaging in, he said they were designed to intimidate the speaker -- to the point where the police advised organizers to call the event off.
"Let me say this: Ann Coulter is a controversial person and her humour is not to everyone's taste and her politics are not to everyone's taste. So what?" he said.
"If you don't like her, ignore her or go and debate her. But for the student body of the University of Ottawa to intimidate the event into being shut down is un-Canadian.
"That's not how we do it in Canada. Our Charter of Rights (and Freedoms) protects freedom of speech and what we saw yesterday was censorship through the threat of intimidation, an embarrassing day for the University of Ottawa."
Political science student David Piccini said that while he doesn't necessarily defend Coulter's politics and views, he doesn't believe that student protesters should be deciding what other students should be able to hear.
"I believe that it is up to the students of the University of Ottawa -- and they are more than capable to have determined this and to have digested this information on their own and to have come to their own conclusion -- and it was not up to various fringe left groups on campus to prevent that from happening," he said Wednesday morning during a separate interview with Canada AM.
But many students weren't happy to see Coulter coming to their campus.
Seamus Wolfe, a member of the University of Ottawa Student Federation, said Coulter's speeches and remarks often cross over into hate, which he said cannot be justified under the auspices of free speech.
"I think that Ann Coulter is somebody who has consistently gone well into the territory of hate speech. She has constantly advocated for murder and violence of individuals and groups of people," Wolfe, said while appearing alongside Piccini on Canada AM.
"I don't think that a public institution like the University of Ottawa should be a soapbox for her hatred," he added, later in the interview.
Letter controversy
Levant also called out Francois Houle, the vice-president academic and University of Ottawa provost, for writing an "unprecedented" letter to Coulter prior to her appearance in the nation's capital, which implied that she could be subject to criminal prosecution.
"I think it was an outrageous letter," Levant said.
"First of all, there was a thinly-veiled threat of criminal charges to be brought against her. He specifically referred to our criminal code," he said.
Levant said he doubted that Houle sends the same types of letters to other controversial speakers.
He even suggested Houle's letter may be partly to blame for what transpired on Tuesday evening.
"Because the vice-president of the University of Ottawa basically sent the message to the community that this woman is anathema, that she's unwelcome and that she may, in fact, even be a criminal, that was like throwing kerosene into the fire. And that egged on the student rioters who shut this thing down," Levant said.
Coulter is due to visit Calgary on Thursday. She spoke at the University of Western Ontario in London, Ont., on Monday.
In a separate interview Levant also had with Canada AM on Wednesday morning, he predicted that Coulter will get a better welcoming in Calgary.
"Calgary is a very tolerant city and we believe in freedom and I'm certain that the event there will go off without a hitch," he said.
With files from The Canadian Press
calgary.ctv.ca |
