Coulter in Trouble! Surrounded! [update at #262: Ann’s O.K., says U of O is “bush league”]

iphone | March 23, 2010 | Syncro

[riri]

Today it’s Ann Coulter..who will it be tomorrow?

[RonDog]

From www.washingtontimes.com:

Canadian protest shuts down Coulter
Conservative blames university, provost

By Casey Curlin and Victor Morton

Conservative commentator Ann Coulter, on a speaking tour of Canada this week addressing political correctness and freedom of speech, found herself silenced Tuesday when organizers canceled a speech at the University of Ottawa after deciding it was too risky to stage the event.

Miss Coulter's Tuesday speech -- the second of three planned across the country -- was called off after raucous demonstrations involving about 2,000 people outside the speaking hall and an evacuation of the University of Ottawa building when someone triggered a fire alarm. The event was cancelled shortly after 8 p.m. -- before Miss Coulter even had a chance to speak.

"It's a public-safety issue," Sgt. Dan Beauchamp told reporters in Ottawa.

When reached Tuesday night by The Washington Times, Miss Coulter said "this has never happened before" in all her years of public speaking, which have included frequent pickets and a couple of attempted pie attacks.

But she came out swinging, denouncing the University of Ottawa as a "bush league" institution.

"I go to the best schools, Harvard, the Ivy League and those kids are too intellectually proud" to threaten speakers. At the University of Ottawa, "their IQ points-to-teeth ratio must be about 1-to-1," she said.

The outspoken Miss Coulter had already sparked controversy on the tour when she all but dared Canadian authorities to try to muffle her under the nation's anti-hate codes, which have been criticized on both sides of the border as stifling free thought and free speech, particularly from conservatives. Her tour is formally titled Political Correctness, Media Bias and Freedom of Speech.

Before Miss Coulter's arrival in Canada, Francois Houle, the University of Ottawa's provost and academic vice president, sent her a letter reminding her of Canada's "reasonable limits on freedom of expression," and the possibility of "criminal charges," an action Miss Coulter openly criticized.

"I hope they do try to prosecute me," Miss Coulter told host Michael Coren on his self-named TV show on the family-oriented CTS network.

After the cancellation, Miss Coulter blamed Mr. Houle, saying "I've been scheduled to give three speeches in Canada. And guess which one I couldn't? The same one where the university sends me a warning.

I think we have an excellent hate-crimes case" against the provost, whose name she said "in English, Frank A-Hole."

[RonDog]

From www.thesudburystar.com:

COULTER SPEECH CANNED BY UNIVERSITY

Posted By QMI AGENCY Posted -12 sec ago

Organizers pulled the plug on a speaking engagement by U.S. Conservative commentator Ann Coulter at the University of Ottawa on Tuesday evening, citing security concerns.

Students of all political stripes had descended upon the university to hear the talk -- some of them lining up for more than two hours in the rain.

The crowd could be heard chanting "We want Ann" after it was announced the event was cancelled at 8:15 -- a half-hour after the talk was due to begin.

Organizers painted the cancellation as University of Ottawa provost Francois Houle getting his wish. Houle had earlier sent Coulter a letter suggesting she brush up on the limits of free speech in Canada, adding that promoting hatred could lead to criminal charges.

Coulter reacted angrily to the letter, saying Houle had threatened her with criminal charges.

More than 2,000 people tried to get into the event -- several times the capacity of the venue.

[steveyp]

Don’t conceal your carry and a ready militia would allow the exercise of free speech rights.

Then again, Canadians may have ceded to the government the right to assemble, speech and bear arms.

[RonDog]

From datechguy.wordpress.com:

Canada may be a beautiful country…
By datechguy

...but stories like this remind me why you couldn’t pay me to live there:

“The University of Ottawa is really easy to get into, isn’t it?” she said in an interview after the cancelled event. “I never get any trouble at the Ivy League schools. It’s always the bush league schools.”

Coulter said she has been speaking regularly at university campuses for a decade. While she has certainly been heckled, she said this is the first time an engagement has been cancelled because of protesters.

“This has never, ever, ever happened before — even at the stupidest American university,”

There are quite a few American universities that might be jealous, shame about that pesky first amendment isn’t it? Smitty comments:

Mark Steyn will no doubt have something blistering on this one, but Canada, you really have wet yourself.

Your osteoporosis has reached a point where a woman with long hair and pointed remarks cannot offer them without you fearing for ’safety’. For crying out loud in the dark, I hope all honest Canucks, who can remember a time before the last hair was shaved off their public bottom in the name of some bogus ‘empathy’ god, just come South of the border right now.

Over at Atlas Pam is her normal quiet self:

These same savages welcome the most hate speech sponsors with open arms and open legs, but truth is verboten….
…They welcome Israel Apartheid Week and its accompanying violence. They welcome Robert Fisk. They welcome George Galloway, today’s Oswald Mosley….no protest except when he was barred from Canada by the Feds for supporting Hamas…..he is a hero of free speech……

They embrace inciter to genocide, George Galloway.

They employ a Muslim terrorist wanted in France for blowing up a synagogue.

Don’t be shy Pam, tell us how you really feel.

Canadians, if you aren’t embarrassed you ought to be. If you are embarrassed but aren’t going to do anything about it then you ought to consider Smitty’s suggestion above. Oh and he’s right about Steyn:

This is the pitiful state one of the oldest free societies on the planet has been reduced to, and this is why our free speech campaign matters – because those who preside over what should be arenas of honest debate and open inquiry instead wish to imprison public discourse within ever narrower bounds – and in this case aren’t above threatening legal action against those who dissent from the orthodoxies.

Lots of Americans loathe Ann Coulter but it takes a Canadian like François Houle to criminalize her. The strictures he attempts to place around her, despite his appeal to “Canadian law”, are at odds with the eight centuries of Canada’s legal inheritance.

It’s not a coincidence that Mark is typing this from the US.

Ann again:

I would like to know when this sort of violence, this sort of protest, has been inflicted upon a Muslim — who appear to be, from what I’ve read of the human rights complaints, the only protected group in Canada. I think I’ll give my speech tomorrow night in a burka. That will protect me.

I feel bad for those Canadian vets at Normandy who game their lives for this. I suspect they would be asking someone to explain how it came to pass that the only person with balls in Canada is an American woman?

UPDATE: At 12:16 A.M. Glenn Reynolds linked to a poll at CBC news on if Ann’s speech. As of 5:35 a.m. the poll is inaccessible. I wonder why? Perhaps they don’t like the results.

[RonDog]

Fromtheothermccain.com:

Q & A With Ann Coulter: Vegas, Baby!

Posted on | March 22, 2010 | 13 Comments

Ann Coulter will speak Saturday in Las Vegas at a Tea Party rally, and not only has she invited everybody to join her in Vegas, but she agreed to this exclusive e-mail interview with The Other McCain:

1. Is this event in Vegas your first Tea Party rally, or have you been quietly lurking in the crowds for months?

I’ve been at all of them. The reason you didn’t see me in the MSM coverage is that I’m an African-American.

2. Why do the major media keep trying to portray the Tea Party movement as a bunch of dangerous scary racists?

Oh it’s nothing against the tea partiers — they think all Americans are dangerous scary racists.

3. Speaking of dangerous scary racists, do you think Sen. Robert Byrd will rediscover his attachment to parliamentary principle and object to Nancy Pelosi’s constitutional end-run with the health care bill?

Yes, right after he remembers where he left the remote.

4. You’re going on a speaking tour of Canada — aren’t you afraid their human-rights commissars will declare you a thought-criminal?

I hope they send the Royal Canadian Mounted Police after me!

[Gondring]

We can get maple syrup from Vermont. They can keep the loons.

Actually, most "Vermont Pure Maple Syrup" sold in the US comes from Canada. It's legal to label that way.

I wonder who designed this sign...were they trying to reduce demand???

[RadiationRomeo]

These Canadian fascist pigs are so transparent.

Great! That makes it easier to find the Canadian bacon. uhmmmmmmmmmmmmm

[aumrl]

Thought the same thing
LOL “Hmmmm? Who do we know that throws like a girl? Ann is extremely smart and I don’t think this is an accident. “

[VAactivist]

This is par for the course as far as conservative speakers at universities. The irony is this definitely helps out Ann.

Post up about it at Youth for Western Civilization website now —

A speech by renowned author and columnist Ann Coulter at the University of Ottawa was shut down this evening, mere moments before it was scheduled to start, after a violent mob of extreme leftists gathered.

According to the Drudge Report, a raging horde of 2000 virulent leftists brandishing rocks and sticks surrounded Marion Hall, where the speech was scheduled to take place. Other leftists barged into the building and pulled fire alarms. The Ottawa police responded with a paltry nine squad cars before Sgt. Dan Beauchamp waved the white flag of surrender, commenting that the gathering mob was “a public safety issue” that he would rather not have to deal with.

The leftists, either incredibly dense, lacking any sense of humor, or both, cited a ‘flying carpet’ joke made earlier by Coulter as the flashpoint for their rage. “I can say it a lot quicker with a joke, and by the way, they wouldn’t be bringing me in here for a speech if I never told a joke, if I never used satire,” Coulter said on Canadian TV today. “It’s not so much a joke, it’s satire because there’s a political point behind my saying that they can take flying carpets.”

More here —

http://www.westernyouth.org/articles/update-ann-coulter-speech-banned-as-violent-mob-gathers/

[bert]

Canada was

[WhistlingPastTheGraveyard]

Bump for later.

[jetson]

Hey look at the praise the press gives the mob. So let’s start doing the same thing to Pelosi, Reid and Barny’s Frank! Get yout bottles and rocks ready!

[FreedomPoster]

Ah, so they moved their hosting, presumably in an attempt to stay out of the reach of their Orwellianly-named “Human Rights Commissions”?

Are those running it remaining anonymous now?

Sad times.

[cbkaty]

Just the beginning.............

KRISTALLKNACHT....will happen here....

[PaleoBob]

The Great Ann. Add me if you can.

[reaganrevolutionin2010]

'The Amish again?'

Whatever do you mean? That protestor looks like a model of free speech advocacy. ;-)

[Candor7]

Law abiding Canadians are disarmed in Canada. The criminals and the leftist extremists all have guns.Watch and learn over the next few years.

BTW, I have an LL.B. from UNB, so I am less than totally ignorant about Canada, LOL.

[jellybean]

Add me if you can.

You've been added! :)

[brytlea]

The two go hand in hand....