Ann Coulter in Ottawa
Again, I’m a little late on the ball, but definitely had to comment on Ann Coulter’s recent visit to Ottawa. I am by no means a fan of Ann Coulter, but think that the University of Ottawa did themselves a disservice by sending the letter to warn her about her speech. I believe this was a mistake. The way to confront ideas that you don’t believe in is to engage in discussion and bring to light the problems with their ideas. Not to stop them from talking at all. Again–this letter was probably a mistake.
On the other side, I agree with letting the protesters also say what they want. Free speech should be applied to both sides.
But now the damage is already done. There is a lot of controversy about who actually had the final decision to cancel the show. Whatever the case may be, Ann Coulter is now playing the role of the victim. This martyrdom, along with all the extra press from this incident, will no doubt be used to her advantage.
We do have hate speech laws on the books and they should be adhered to by all. Statements like Jews need to be ‘perfected’ and torture should be a televised spectator sport do qualify.
It was she and her groupies who cancelled the event, not the university; not the Ottawa Police.
Plus that whole Ottawa thing was staged from the get go.
ck - March 25, 2010 at 11:04 pm |
True CK–I have since read that it indeed was her group that cancelled the speech. Beautifully done to make her look like the victim. She may have staged everything from the start, and is definitely using all this for her own nefarious public relations.
But I do maintain that you cannot invite someone to speak at your school–then attempt to tone down the speakers message. If you were afraid of what she might say, why invite her in the first place.
TigercatTomorrow - March 26, 2010 at 12:39 am |
Wow, where to even begin. I for one am glad that she received the letter and had one of her underlings read it to her. I had not hear of Ms. Coulter prior to the recent press here in Ottawa, but all I can say about her now is that she gets a lot of attention for wild and racist remarks. If she’s trying to draw attention to her to get a particular point across, she is failing miserably as the only point I know about her talks is that she thinks all muslim people should ride camels instead of taking planes.
Writing her a letter informing her of our laws was more prudent then having the police standing there beside her podium with handcuffs at the ready. She is no different from anyone else and must adhere to our laws while in our country. From what I have read the letter was not threatening in nature, but rather informative. Would she have been offended if someone wrote her a letter and informed her that if she arrived naked she could be charged with indecent exposure? It was clear she simply wasn’t aware of our laws based on previous speeches and someone simply wanted to clear the air, before there was an incident.
What we can all learn from this is that people who make wildly outrageous claims without saying much of substance should simply ignored as it is the only way to make them silent.
James Bull - April 14, 2010 at 3:24 pm
To add to this debate, and maybe bring up how fuzzy this is (not as black and white as I would like to think) here is another interesting blog post: http://anniesvancouversalon.wordpress.com/2010/03/25/the-sausage-likes-ann-coulter-tension-in-the-house/
TigercatTomorrow - March 26, 2010 at 12:53 am |