By: Victor Morton

The University of Ottawa denied responsibility Wednesday for the cancellation of Ann Coulter's speech there, a claim ridiculed by the conservative commentator's team.

Miss Coulter, in the middle of a three-speech tour of Canada titled "Political Correctness, Media Bias and Freedom of Speech," had received a warning about Canada's hate-speech codes and possible "criminal charges" from Francois Houle, the school's academic vice president and provost.

Before the speech, organized by the International Free Press Society Canada and the Clare Boothe Luce Policy Institute, the venue was picketed by about 1,000 yelling demonstrators, and student Web pages had been calling for violence against Miss Coulter. On Tuesday night, she was advised by security that her safety could not be guaranteed.

"The organizers themselves decided at 7:50 p.m. to cancel the event," the university said in a statement posted on its Web site on Wednesday that also characterized the demonstrators as having "peacefully gathered."

The school said it "did not at any time oppose Ann Coulters appearance. Whether it is Ann Coulter or any other speaker, diverse views have always been and continue to be welcome on our campus."

Canadian lawyer-activist Ezra Levant, who was scheduled to introduce Miss Coulter at her speech, called the statement "a weak attempt at damage control" now that the school's handling of the speech "has exploded in their face."

"The police and security said it was not safe to proceed," Mr. Levant said. Sgt. Dan Beauchamp of the Ottawa Police, which sent about 10 squad cars to the event, told reporters Tuesday night that "it's a public-safety issue."

Mr. Levant has agreed "to be Ann's lawyer" in bringing a hate-speech claim against Mr. Houle, saying his letter helped create a threatening environment against Miss Coulter.

"The university itself helped to whip up the problem," said Mr. Levant, who also accused school officials of being "desperate to distance themselves from Francois Houle's outrageous letter. Note that they did not talk about their love for free speech to Ann Coulter last week - it was all about limits, 'restraint' and possible prosecutions. Clearly, they realize they made a gross error - and are facing a massive Canadian and international backlash."

No I had not heard that.

Those wacky right wingers - you really gotta watch out for 'em....

nankerphelge wrote on Mar 25^th, 2010 at 11:57am:



when fail on a promise, yea, duh! Except they are suceeding and succeeding at pissing off you.... win-win!

Starbuck wrote on Mar 25^th, 2010 at 12:27pm:



Maybe he believes that some are soooo stupid, they count double . . .

fuman wrote on Mar 25^th, 2010 at 12:41pm:



not odd at all... not odd either that Limbaugh is a huge race baiter... it's just like how it was ok for protestors to shout down represenatives trying to hold town hall meetings and squashing debate and talk, yet they are bitching about coulter, being protested in Canada and shut down... like somehow an american, who is self admitted into to starting arguments deserves free speech in another country... who BTW, she and others put down for socialistic healthcare....
All i know is a disagree with them and they seem to think i beleive what i do b/c i have bad info... yet, once again, more ironic that a brookly hipster... they were fine with bad intel to go to war...

Riffhard wrote on Mar 24^th, 2010 at 7:56pm:

It's like Dubya used to say, "Elections have consequences."  The people won the last election; the corporations, their Repugnican lackeys and their douche bagger--excuse me, douche partier--dupes, lost.  Maybe you reactionaries will do better in the next election, but if it's anything like Riffy's previous predictions--WMDs in Iraq, Obama as toast, health care as Waterloo--I wouldn't bet on it.

Is it really going to cover all the illegals?

Most people get insurance at work. How will you buy mandated insurance if you are unemployed?

Will it cover Riffys breakdown?

Riffhard wrote on Mar 25^th, 2010 at 1:32pm:



Maybe he will grant amnesty like Reagan or even raise taxes higher or if you get your wish, b/c you hate him more than you love America, maybe unemployment will be as high as it was when Reagan was president.... which btw, he blamed on Carter....

so, now the death threats are real, right?

You do remember, this healthcare bill was what both Clinton and Obama said was priority? And who won, Obama did... so... you also know, that a special election in Mass, making 41 senators out of 100, isn't a national election, and is 10 short of the majority... so, what part of, this is what the people voted for, do you ont get? disagree, yes you do... but that isn't right or wrong is it? Care to expalin the comment you made about blood running in the streets or how a pictire of two black men as you denied the threats against elected officials are relevant as well as sane? Us moraon are all waiting to here you justify cals for violence and race baiting...
it came, flacid and slow!

Listen to this fat fuck! This is the way a socialist bastard would think. The goods news is that nobody listens this pricks show. His ratings are in the shitter. Please take note of the comments left, and note how many of them are slamming this buffoon.


It's the Special Ed Show-

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2010/03/25/msnbc_host_time_for_socialism_...



Hey Pdog. You've got zero game. You are historically illiterate. Take a good hard look at Reagan's jobs numbers again. There was only a very brief period where the unemployment numbers were even close to what this clown has given us. Plus, Reagan did inherit an economy that was in worse shape than what Barry got. Unemployment was at 12%. When Reagan left office the unemployment rate was 4.5%, and it was the single largest expansion of wealth in the history of the country. It also saw a huge swath of people mover from the lower middle class to the upper middle class.



Riffy

Gov Blockhead from Ga. is looking to file his own lawsuit.

Demzo Violentino
Josh Marshall | March 25, 2010, 5:03PM

I came down with some kind of bug today. So from a bit after Eric Cantor gave his press conference this morning until a short time ago I was pretty much out of commission. So I read David's post below about the alleged attack on Cantor's office fresh, not knowing any of the reporting the team had done on the story. And I'm a bit surprised -- or maybe not so surprised -- that Cantor can even walk down the halls of Congress now without friends and associates snickering at him for making such a fool out of himself. Putting together Cantor's statements to the press and the police report about the incident, Cantor's claim seems to be that he was attacked by one of those Renaissance military engineers from Italy who first discovered the parabolic ballistic equations that allowed you to shoot artillery nearly straight up in the air and have it hit your enemy on the way back down.

In case you haven't read David's piece, Cantor went before the press this morning to try deflect criticism of Republican for creating a climate of hysteria and eliminationist rhetoric that has contributed to this rash of violent incidents and acts of vandalism against members of Congress who voted for Health Care Reform. Cantor rather improbably claimed that it was Demcorats fanning the flames of violence and recounted a chilling tale of a recent incident in which an attacker fired his gun through the window of Cantor's office in Richmond.

Alas, the police report shows that when the police investigated they determined that an unknown person had shot a firearm into the air and that on the way back down the bullet broke a window in a building where Cantor has an office. We always try to be extremely cautious when describing these sorts of attacks because often the motivation behind them is inherently ambiguous. But this seems to be a caution Cantor doesn't have much time for since, in need of an incident to create a false and preposterous equality, he determined not only that this unknown assailant was an aggrieved proponent of universal health care but that he or she has an exceptional grasp of trigonometry.


http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2010/03/demzo_violentino.php#more?ref=...