Thank you for the piece, Michael.

Ann is exactly right, if a Muslim got the kind of treatment she did, (which they wouldn’t), the uproar would be huge.

Just out of curiosity, do you think these same students would be equally outraged at one time Black Panther Bobby Seale giving a speech? He has a history that is slightly more violent than Coulter’s and was scheduled to appear at the same University this coming weekend but was barred at the border.

Good question Martini, let’s for the left’s responce, shall we.

Sorry Michelle, but, you know, this is Canada. And who says it was liberals who gathered to oppose her speech. In any event, Palin did not face the same treatment so perhaps Coulter has some baggage that Canadians do not appreciate.

As for Bobby Seale, it really has been more than 35 years since his revolutionary days. Another one of those guys, Eldridge Cleaver, became a born again Christian. People change. Who he is now is what counts. Here is a link to his wiki biography: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_Seale

Here is an exerpt referencing his recent years:

“In more recent years, Seale’s actions differ greatly from the radical ones of his past. In 1987, he authored a cookbook called Barbequing with Bobby and was also a spokesman for Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. In the early 1990′s Seale appeared on the TV documentary series ‘Cold War’ reminiscing about events in the 1960s. In 2002, Seale began dedicating his time to Reach!, a group focused on youth education programs. Also, he taught black studies at Temple University in Philadelphia and is currently launching an instructional, nonprofit group helping people develop the necessary techniques and tools to set up community organization within their neighborhoods.”

Now consider these relatively recent Ann Coulter quotes:

–On her controversial remarks: “I like to stir up the pot. I don’t pretend to be impartial or balanced, as broadcasters do.”

–On voting rights: “It would be a much better country if women did not vote. That is simply a fact.”

–On Liberals: “Liberals hate America, they hate flag-wavers, they hate abortion opponents, they hate all religions except Islam, post 9/11. Even Islamic terrorists don’t hate America like liberals do. They don’t have the energy. If they had that much energy, they’d have indoor plumbing by now.”

–On terrorism: “We know who the homicidal maniacs are. They are the ones cheering and dancing right now. We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity. We weren’t punctilious about locating and punishing only Hitler and his top officers. We carpet-bombed German cities; we killed civilians. That’s war. And this is war.”

–On security: “If only we could get Muslims to boycott all airlines, we could dispense with airport security altogether.” She also sad Muslims could use “flying carpets” to travel instead. When a Muslim female student called Coulter on that comment during one of her students, she told the student “to take a camel.” See video.

–On Jihad fighters: “I believe our motto should be after 9/11: Jihad monkey talks tough; jihad monkey takes the consequences. Sorry, I realize that’s offensive. How about “camel jockey”? What? Now what’d I say? Boy, you tent merchants sure are touchy. Grow up, would you?”

–On John Edwards: “I was going to have a few comments on the other Democratic presidential candidate, John Edwards, but it turns out that you have to go into rehab if you use the word ‘faggot,’ so I’m – so, kind of at an impasse, can’t really talk about Edwards, so I think I’ll just conclude here and take your questions.” See video.

–On Jews: “We just want Jews to be perfected … That is what Christianity is … that is what Christians consider themselves: perfected Jews.” See video.

–On Barack Obama before he became President: “It’s shocking that … he’s probably going to be our next president, President Hussein” and “[h]is first big accomplishment” was “being born half-black. … He wouldn’t be running for president if he weren’t half-black.”

–On the health care reform: “I might be in favor of national healthcare if it required all Democrats to get their heads examined.”

–On the election of a Republican in Massachusetts: “The fact that a Republican is in the late Senator Kennedy’s old seat must have him rolling in his grave, probably spilling his drink.”

Canadians have as much right to protest against things they do not like as tea partiers. Correct?

Protest, yes – by all means.
Gathering in a way to stifle speech? I suppose they have a right to that as well, but I have been lectured ad nauseum over the years on tolerance, and accepting opposing views, and that restricting speech is wrong. I mean, this sort of thing is just not acceptable. They have hate-speech laws in Canada so if she were to say something truly hateful I suppose she would have been arrested. But here they just refused to let her speak.

I can’t stand Ann Coulter; she’s just not my cup of tea.

That having been said, I think this is an interesting issue and I’ll be interested to see how liberals react to it. From the perspective of traditional liberalism (and First Amendment law) this is a no brainer: she has the free speech right to be a jerk. Even the ACLU, for example and to their credit, has repeatedly represented the KKK in cases where they were denied permits for protests and parades. But the modern strain of progressivism is moving towards the Canadian model. Of course, the Canadian model is a farce, as this experience well shows. They are just using the amorphous ideal of “civility” to censor the speech of people they don’t like.

If you want a good read, the great Stanley Fish has a book called There’e No Such Thing as Free Speech (And It’s a Good Thing, Too) in which he takes on modern progressive/Canadian theory of free speech and just intellectually humiliates them. I certainly don’t agree with everything Fish says on any subject, but he is brilliant and when he’s right he’s right.

Don’t forget, this is Canada. It might not be fair to project our liberty values to them, though, I am sure they value that too. But the organizers, faced with lots of protesters, may have not wanted to offend so many of their own people just to provide Coulter with a forum to rant her stuff, because after Coulter leaves with her speaking fee, the organizers have to deal with those people and pissing them off might not be a wise economic decision. I guess you could say it was a successful protest.

Fat, flamethrowing, firebreathing, fabricating, fibbing Michael Moore is welcomed with open arms by the Canucks..

Fat? As opposed to skeleton-like. :-) Most Canadians respect, for example, Moore’s environmental concerns, Coulter is a denier in that regard. Coulter is a hawk who would like to see us invade Iran, whereas, like Moore, the Canadians generally do not see it that way.

And all the gullible sheep eat it up. Ann was not cancelled by the University. She was cancelled by the organizers of the event (or her ‘bodyguard’ – depending on which article you are reading). The ‘hundreds’ of protesters were actually only about 30 or so, according to people who were there; the rest were people who were stupid enough to shell out coin. The big threat was that someone pulled the fire alarm (you mean some idiotic college student did something stupid?!?) Everyone got played, and Ann is laughing all the way to the BANK!!!