Woe, Canada

For days I have been following the Ann Coulter-goes-to-Canada controversy. It all started when she was invited to speak at the University of Ottawa by the International Free Press Society, as part of a three-stop tour. Liberals immediately went batshit:

Local activist and one-time NDP candidate Megan Walker says of Coulter, “She’s venomous . . . She crosses the line and promotes hatred and violence.”

But it’s perfectly ok for Ms. Walker to say that about anyone. You see, the group wanted to teach the locals what “freedom of speech” means, and they chose to do so by bringing Ms. Coulter to the campus. Needless to say, they failed. But how they failed is rich with irony. The first salvo was fired by none other than Francois Houle, the university provost. He decided to send Ms. Coulter a thinly veiled threat an e-mail. In it he explains that since “free speech” in Canada is curtailed, anything she says that might be construed as promotion of hatred towards any group can be considered a criminal act. In essence, she was threatened with jail for a speech she had not yet given. So, what is a frail flower like Ms. Coulter to do? She files a complaint with the Human Rights Commission.

“I’m sure the Human Rights Commission will get to the bottom of it,” Coulter said to loud cheers from the 800-strong audience. “I think I’m the victim of a hate crime here. Either what (Mr. Houle) did was a hate crime, or the whole commission is BS.”

The second salvo in this saga was fired by students of the university. About 2,000 students converged at Marion Hall, posing a security threat, and requiring ten Ottawa police cars to respond. The organizers were forced to cancel Ms. Coulter’s scheduled appearance because they could no longer guarantee her safety:

“It would be physically dangerous for Ann Coulter to proceed with this event,” said conservative political activist Ezra Levant inside the hall. “This is an embarrassing day for the University of Ottawa and their student body . . . who chose to silence her through threats and intimidation.”

One of the protest organizers, an international studies student, was very pleased they were able to stop the scheduled speech:

“What Ann Coulter is practicing is not free speech, it’s hate speech,” [Mike Fancie] said. “She’s targeted the Jews, she’s targeted the Muslims, she’s targeted Canadians, homosexuals, women, almost everybody you could imagine.”

That’s called equal opportunity, you fucking moron. He sees no irony in his actions. None of those so-called students do. But then again, apparently you do have the right to be offended in Canada. If it weren’t for the western provinces, I would write that country off as completely lost to political correctness. They should learn how to avoid extinction from the happenings in their motherlands. I like you, Canada. You have given me enormous joy with hockey and bacon. But you have failed. This was an intervention, and you had to go off the wagon. Hope that swill of PCness tasted good, because it’s killing you.