I have made no secret that I do not appreciate some of what spews — yes, spews — out of the gob of American right-wing pundit Ann Coulter. And, let’s be honest, most people would not even know she exists if she didn’t have long blonde hair and even longer legs — since much of what she says is also said by many other, less attractive, right wing commentators.
My issue with her is mainly the childish comments she’s made over the years about Canada, a country of which I’m very proud to be a citizen.
Coulter has repeatedly insulted Canada when we haven’t said ‘Yes sir, how high sir?’ after the U.S. has tried to tell us to jump. She has said we’re lucky to be allowed to exist by the U.S.
While insulting us, she has also shown a thorough lack of knowledge about relations between the U.S. and Canada, at one point trying to argue with CBC journalist Bob McKeown that Canada sent troops to Vietnam. As anyone in Canada with a Grade 5 education knows, we stayed out of Vietnam.
But Coulter should still be free to say what she believes, no matter how insulting. No one should shut her or anyone else down.
This is why I was thoroughly embarrassed when Coulter was prevented from speaking at the University of Ottawa on Tuesday.
Now, there is, of course, some question as to whether it was the student protesters and those who issued threats who forced the cancellation of Coulter’s speech or if the police force that shut it down jumped the gun.
However, it is obvious that the protesters obviously had some impact on shutting down the event and that’s where I have a real problem with this. It doesn’t help them when many celebrated when Coulter’s speech was shut down.
Protesting is great and they should be free to do so, but actively pushing to actually stop the speech is idiotic and a form of censorship, which no one should advocate.
So, the protesters don’t like much of what Coulter says, but nobody has the right to keep her from talking to people who do want to hear what she has to say. They should have just peacefully protested to get their points across.
The group of protesters should be ashamed of themselves for becoming a modern day equivalent of book burners.
Book burners didn’t want people to read certain thoughts of some writers so they felt destroying as many copies as possible of these controversial writings would keep people from reading them. The University of Ottawa protesters also kept people from gleaning specific information, just because the protesters disagreed.
No country, especially Canada, has one opinion maintained by all of its citizens. Variety of opinion is what is great about Canada and there are many people who agree with what Coulter has to say. Why are these people, along with those who may not agree but were curious to hear what she was going to say, being treated like second-rate citizens who shouldn’t be allowed to hear what they want to hear? Nobody has a right to stop Canadians from listening to what they want to hear.
Coulter herself is against certain people/groups voicing their opinion. In one of her rants against Canada she indicated that Canada should not have its own opinion and just go along with the U.S.
So, by the protesters successfully attempting to prevent Coulter from voicing her opinion, they have stooped to her level and become no better than she. And that’s the saddest fact out of all of this — a group of students came together for a cause but in the end it became the equivalent of Ann Coulter. As a Canadian, that’s embarrassing.
Jason Small can be reached at 691-1255.
