Disclaimer: This post is a defense of freedom of speech on Canadian university campuses, not an apologetic for Ann Coulter.
Ann Coulter, currently on her Canadian speaking tour, has discovered the intellectually stifling and repressive culture that has become very prevalent on Canadian university campuses in recent years. Her speech last night at the University of Ottawa had to be canceled due to protests, recalling similar cancellations of pro-life events at McGill and St. Mary's.
'Free speech in Canada leaves much to be desired': Ann Coulter after event cancellation
People who react to occurrences like this by saying that they disagree with Ann Coulter and find her "hateful" and "offensive" are entirely missing the point. We understand that you disagree with Ann Coulter and find her offensive. So do most Canadians.
However, in a mature society which places real value on free expression, there would be no question of whether or not she should be "allowed" to speak. It goes without saying that people are allowed to speak, no matter how much we disagree with them.
Unfortunately, the hyper-privileged youth of today see university campuses as "safe spaces" where they have a right not to encounter any views with which they disagree. When their sanctity is violated by some speaker who offends them, they call on the university or the state to protect them from this "harassment". Truly, there is nothing more removed from the spirit of the university than this infantile insistence on intellectual uniformity.
Free speech has its limits. You are not permitted to shout "Fire!" in a crowded theatre. You are also not allowed to promote hatred against ethnic or religious groups, which is what Coulter did when she spoke at the University of Western Ontario. I think the protests are justified.
ReplyDeleteFree speech has its limits as defined by the law, yes. And those include criminal offenses like inciting violence or genocide, or disturbing the peace.
ReplyDeleteAnn Coulter's comments simply don't fall under this definition. If they did, it would be for the courts to decide whether she can speak and not some mob of over-privileged thugs.
Ann Coulter regularly takes advantage of hyperbole and rhetorical license in her talks, and only someone completely unfamiliar with those concepts could take her ridiculous comments to be serious and malicious "hate speech" in the proper sense.
The problem is, the majority of her audience is unfamiliar with those concepts, so her talks can be interpreted as hate speech. It's fine to speak in hyperbole and satire until someone takes it too far and someone else gets hurt. The murder of Dr. George Tiller, for example.
ReplyDeleteI have a slightly higher evaluation of the average listener. If we assume people are too stupid to grasp her form of rhetoric, and that the nanny state must intervene to protect us from the possibility of misinterpretation, it leads to dangerous places.
ReplyDeleteThere are people who might commit violence in the name of any ideology. The fact that exceptional idiots exist isn't reason enough to stifle political discourse for the rest of us.
Her talk wasn't cancelled because she was being refused the right to speak, let's get that straight. Her talk was cancelled because the organizers of the event were poorly prepared for the attention that would be given to her presence. If they had of had a proper security procedure and crowd control they would have been able to listen to her hate mongering all they wanted.
ReplyDeleteThis isn't even a concern of free speech really. She wasn't prevented to speak because of her content so much as she was prevented because of the poor crowd control methods. You can't commit hate speech crimes without the opportunity to do so.
People are also allowed the right to protest in this country, which God forbid, somehow competes with the right to free speech. That seems to always get lost in the discussion of free speech when people use protest.
Basically, you're saying that if you don't have the resources to defend yourself from an angry mob that wants to shut you down, you shouldn't expect to be able to speak. The minority shouldn't expect to be able to air their views if they can't defend against the majority.
ReplyDeleteThe provost of U of O tried to censor Coulter, and incited these boorish thugs who took the cue and shut the whole thing down. To lay the blame on the organizers is dishonest.