As of this writing, American conservative pundit Ann Coulter will have finished speaking in front of what appears to have been a packed house at the University of Western Ontario (UPDATE: Things did get a little testy).
Coulter will be here in Calgary for an event Thursday night, but before that, she is due to speak at the University of Ottawa tomorrow night.
That event, however, has sparked a bit of a kerfuffle:
...A senior University of Ottawa administrator has warned [Coulter] to use "restraint, respect and consideration" when speaking at the school.
Francois Houle, vice-president academic and provost, advises Ms. Coulter, who holds a law degree, to review Canada's hate speech and defamation laws before giving her talk at the university.
In an email sent to Ms. Coulter on Friday, a copy of which has been obtained by the National Post, Mr. Houle wrote: "Our domestic laws, both provincial and federal, delineate freedom of expression (or "free speech") in a manner that is somewhat different than the approach taken in the United States. I therefore encourage you to educate yourself, if need be, as to what is acceptable in Canada and to do so before your planned visit here."
The university, though, seems much more enlightened that the student government:
In Ottawa, the president of the student federation barred a volunteer organizer from putting up posters advertising the upcoming appearance.
"The federation does not support Ann Coulter speaking on our campus," said student president Seamus Wolfe. "We're trying to work with the administration to see if we can ask her to do her speaking event somewhere else."
Hard to get any less equivocal than that: we want Ann Coulter banned. Period. Time was that student activists on campus were among the most radical defenders of free speech. In those days, however, it was easier to maintain that posture since they were primarily defending those with whom they agree.
Of course the true test of your commitment to free speech is to what length you'll go to defend the rights of those you disagree with. On this point, today's campus "progressives" fail miserably.
From Ann Coulter to campus pro-life groups to campus pro-Israel groups we've seen example after example of viewpoints being censored or marginalized - viewpoints that all happen to run afoul of the left-wing campus political establishment.
We had invited Seamus Wolfe to come on our program to discuss this story. He responded with this statement:
With all due respect, Ann Coulter has already got enough attention. She thrives in the limelight of her false martyrdom everytime she opens her bigoted, hate-filled and violence condoning mouth and enjoys it even more when anyone calls her out on it. I would rather not continue to give her that pleasure.
A much better approach to dealing with matters such as this comes courtesy of Robyn Urback at Maclean's magazine's OnCampus blog:
Censorship is nothing but a soggy band-aid. Why cover up contentious ideology when you can potentially reason it down to irrelevance?
If you really think Coulter spews ridiculous, insulting dribble, let her hang herself with her own words. It will be a lot more effective than putting tape over her mouth and insisting that she would have been offensive.
UPDATE: Ann apparently had some fun with this controversy in her speech:
Speaking to students and academics at the University of Western Ontario Monday, Coulter said the e-mail sent to her Friday by Francois Houle, vice-president academic and provost of the University of Ottawa, targeted her as a member of an identifiable group and as such, she will be filing a complaint with the Human Rights Commission alleging hate speech.
“I’m sure the Human Rights Commission will get to the bottom of it,” Coulter said to loud cheers from the 800-strong audience. “I think I’m the victim of a hate crime here. Either what (Mr. Houle) did was a hate crime, or the whole commission is BS.”
Like with much of what Coulter has to say, it's hard to know if she's kidding.
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