Protesters against Ann Coulter outside Marion Hall after they managed to have the planned speech at the University of Ottawa canceled due to security concerns.Photograph by: Wayne Cuddington, Ottawa Citizen
‘It’s always the bush league schools,’ Coulter contends
by Zev Singer and Kristy Nease
Ottawa Citizen
3/24/2010
OTTAWA — After protesters at the University of Ottawa prevented Ann Coulter from giving a speech Tuesday night, the American conservative writer said it proved the point she came to make — free speech in Canada leaves much to be desired.
Then she said what she really thought of the student protesters who surrounded Marion Hall, making it to unsafe, in the view of her bodyguard, for the pundit to attempt entry.
“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,” she said.
Coulter remarked on the reception she has had since entering the country.
“Since I’ve arrived in Canada, I’ve been denounced on the floor of Parliament — which, by the way, is on my bucket list — my posters have been banned, I’ve been accused of committing a crime in a speech that I have not yet given, I was banned by the student council, so welcome to Canada!”..
…Canadian conservative political commentator Ezra Levant, the other speaker travelling with Coulter on the three-city tour, presented by the International Free Press Society of Canada, told the half-filled hall that no more people would be able to enter and that Coulter had been advised it would not be safe for her to appear…
…Levant said the spectacle showed “just how eroded our Canadian values of free speech have become” — especially on university campuses…
Read the entire article at Canada.com
H/T Pamela Geller, Atlas Shrugs, top photo and article link.
