Looks like another American right-wing-nut is making their way across the border and causing media frenzy in the True North. Ann Coulter, who I’m sure you all know and love-to-hate, is ending her 3 university Canadian tour today. On Tuesday at the University of Ottawa she was met with fierce protest and outrage. I’m not sure if the American media even covered the protest, but I’ve read a bit of Ann’s personal take on the event, and it differs greatly from the images and stories from the crowd at the event. She claims the protest was violent and hate-filled. That the protesters forcibly shut down the event. Do these students look violent to you? Some of these people are smiling and just happy to be out in the brink evening chill of a Canadian spring!
The real story from the University of Ottawa is that Coulter’s organizers canceled the event themselves and that the protest was peaceful. Also, local news sources confirm that the crowd was not violent and other than some uncharacteristically Canadian screaming and yelling, Coulter was not in danger.
This got me thinking: Has she never been met with protest before? Does
she really think a crowd of Canadian youth was going to eat her alive?
Her next stop is today in the conservative capital of the country, Calgary, Alberta. Like other American conservatives before her, she is welcomed here with open arms. Calgary welcomed George Bush with open arms a few years back and will also give Sarah Palin the red carpet treatment in a few months.
Calgarians aside, Canadians have an intense love of free speech, and I believe that Ann
has the right to speak her mind wherever she chooses if people want to
hear it. I also believe in the right to assembly and to protest. People
feel she is spreading a message of bigotry and hate, and they have every
right to voice that opinion.
Oh Ann. At this point, I don’t know if it was a peaceful assembly or the terror threat she portrays it as. All I can say is if they “shut her down” through violence, I can’t support that, but if she’s playing the media game then I hope (as I have often hoped before) that she gets what is coming to her.
Ann Coulter was interviewed on Fox News by Bill O’Reilly. During that interview, she explained that she, personally, was in a coffee shop waiting for an indication it was time to go and deliver her speech. The Police called her bodyguards and informed them it was too dangerous to proceed.
There is also a video of Ezra Levant inside the venue, explaining that the protesters were pressed up against the doors, holding them closed, which would have prevented her access.
News organisations have also reported that protesters “jammed the entrance” to the venue.
Additionally, when there is a large group of people with emotions and tensions running high, mob mentality has a very high risk of setting in – which means that while individual protesters may not have gone down to the site with the express intent of assaulting Ann, it is quite likely that something would have happened had she attempted to access the place.
Any way that you look at it, the University itself is initially to blame for sending the infamous “watch your mouth” letter, and then, worse, these protesters physically obstructed Ann from being able to deliver her speech. Obstruction (jamming doors, holding them shut, and setting off a fire alarm) obviously isn’t on the level of Rodney King, but it definitly a form of violence.
You may or may not agree with Ann Coulter, her message, or how she delivers it, but none of that negates her right to express her opinion in a forum that has assembled peacefully.
The moment the protesters started obstructing her access, they should have been arrested.