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Monday, November 15, 2010
"Protest" Disrupts Christie Blatchford Speech on Caledonia
Blatch gets the Anne Coulter treatment:
Three protesters locked themselves together at the centre of the stage where Blatchford was meant to speak at the University of Waterloo’s (UW) Humanities Theatre in Hagey Hall, with another individual acting as their “negotiator”. A fifth, Tallula Marigold, acted as the group’s media representative.
“We don’t want people who are really, really racist teaching [the people we love],” said Marigold of Blatchford. “And we don’t want that person to have a public forum because it makes it dangerous for others in the public forum.”
[...]
“Unfortunately there is a small minority that felt that they would win if they’d just sit on the stage and yell ‘racist, racist, racist’,” said Strickland. “We made a determination that since she wasn’t going to get a word in, in any sort of respectful fashion, there would be no point in bringing her out and having her subjected to that.”
(HT)
Blatchford, who unlike the protestors, has a real job, eventually gave up and went home. So the thugs accomplished their avowed goal, silencing someone who disagrees with them. I'm not going to bother with the risible nonsense that Christie Blatchford is a racist, or that Helpless is some kind of modern day Mein Kampf. Facts are stubborn things, and the facts of Caledonia are not pleasant ones for multiculturalist pieties.
The only major acts of racism that went on at Caledonia were from the authorities, for refusing to enforce the laws of Canada equally, and from the "protestors" who seized and attacked non-aboriginal persons and property. I've covered the tragedy of Caledonia here and here. The tradition of political activism as thuggery can be dated at least as far back as the Free Speech Movement at Berkeley. It is a pernicious tradition that university authorities should have broken with many years ago.
The hazy boomer nostalgia for the Free Speech Movement, and the wave of imitation student protests it set off, has prevented the media, university authorities and much of the general public from responding appropriately to these acts of violence. These are not idealistic adolescents trying to change the world for the better, they are fascists. To silence opposition through violence, or threats of violence is fascistic. To smear opponents with unfounded accusations is fascistic. To treat university or private property as agitprop is fascistic.
The only appropriate response is to demand the police remove these "protesters" from the stage and, if need be, the campus. If the behaviour persists and is disruptive, then expel these so-called students. What a bleak irony that these violations of basic decency and good order were made, and succeeded without consequence, as at university named in honour of Sir Wilfrid Laurier.
Posted by Richard Anderson on November 15, 2010 | Permalink
Comments
Last line is incorrect. While both are a stone's throw apart University of Waterloo (UW) is not Wilfred Laurier University (WLU)
Agree wholeheartedly with everything else!
Posted by: eric | 2010-11-15 8:42:03 AM
Sir Wilfrid Laurier, he's Francophone, not Anglophone.
Posted by: Canadian Liberty | 2010-11-15 9:14:31 AM
Considering that the university and campus are funded by tax payers, it is well past time that we demand an end to this. Why were the police, also funded by tax payers, not ordered to remove the imitation Brown Shirts? Oh dear, I forgot that was exactly the subject of the book and talk.
Posted by: Alain | 2010-11-15 11:20:10 AM
Easy solution - this University is no longer allowed to have public speakers as they can not guarantee the behaviour of their student body. No more speakers, no more protests. Act like spoiled children, get treated like spoiled children.
Posted by: Amom | 2010-11-15 12:22:42 PM
Makes me sick! I called the media relations line of the University Police and left a rather pissed off message. Those kids should have been hauled off that stage with the locks still on!!!
Posted by: Merle Terlesky | 2010-11-15 12:24:14 PM
In America, we are beginning to fight back against the p.c. nazis on campus and elsewhere. Thanks to Obama for finally getting the American people pissed off enough to start to tell the left where to stick it! When are Canadians going to do the same? Or has the Canadian majority decided to act like sheep in front of these fascist wolfs? Come on, Canada grow a pair! Have the feminist radicals taken the last ounce of manhood from you or what? If the rantings of leftists have to be allowed on campus then so should the rallying cries of the right. The radical left is trying to impose their will through academia, the mainstream media, and the Hollywood elite. In the U.S., counterweights have arisen to oppose them(talk radio, Tea Party, Fox News, the religious right)! Outside of Charles Adler, where is Canada's counterweight. The left has been destroying Canada for generations. Its time for Canadians to fight back!
Posted by: Ted | 2010-11-15 7:32:41 PM
Amom has the right idea. I like it.
Posted by: peterj | 2010-11-15 10:28:25 PM
Its time for Canadians to fight back!
Posted by: Ted | 2010-11-15 7:32:41 PM
Are we allowed to say Merry Christmas next month or are we still on Happy Holidays. Watch the different TV channels to see if we are making any progress in the fight against political correctness.
Posted by: peterj | 2010-11-15 10:35:58 PM
Peterj, it is up to you to insist on using Merry Christmas. Forget about MSM, television or whatever, for they should be ignored. I am not a Christian but neither am I the least bit offended when someone wishes me a merry Christmas or sends me a card with the same. To attempt to replace Christmas with happy holidays is the height of silliness.
Posted by: Alain | 2010-11-16 6:41:16 PM
Alain,
Originally the use of "happy holidays" was to be inclusive of the Jewish high holidays. The intent was not to throw part of Canadian history and tradition down the memory hole, but just to be considerate of one particular group.
Over time it has been used deliberately to efface the origin and history of Christmas. I'm not a Christian either, and there has developed a secular aspect to Christmas that sits apart from the New Testament narrative.
Often the use of "happy holidays" today is not as a gesture of inclusion, but one of intimidation. Don't express your own personal traditions, which were those of almost everyone until about thirty years ago, because it might be offensive. But it isn't. I've never once had a Muslim, Hindu or Sikh express the slightest annoyance at the words Merry Christmas. People of good will don't care. Militant fanatics - religious and secular - make a stink about it.
Destroying Christmas isn't so much about throwing Christianity out of the public sphere, thought that is part of it, it's about creating a society of amnesiacs. A country without traditions is a country without memory, and so easier to mould and control.
Posted by: Publius | 2010-11-16 7:00:09 PM
Peterj, it is up to you to insist on using Merry Christmas.
Posted by: Alain | 2010-11-16 6:41:16 PM
We use ONLY "Merry Christmas" cards in our family which thankfully are still in good supply. As Publius states, it has little to do with religion and everything to do with tradition. I grew up with it and dont remember it ever offending anyone. If it ever did , they could kiss my ass. I also let advertising companies know that their political correctness is annoying and would probably affect my decision to shop in their stores or purchase the advertised products. A small rebelion perhaps but it gives me personal satisfaction. If enough people did this, perhaps they would get the hint that tradition is more important than continually trying to please the tails that keep wagging the dogs.
Posted by: peterj | 2010-11-17 12:37:13 AM
Anyone putting up a 'Holday Tree" this year?
No me. But I will put up a Christmas tree.
As far as Blatchford is concerned, I plan to buy her book. I might even give away a couple as 'Christmas' gifts.
Posted by: Smokey | 2010-11-21 11:07:40 AM
I suppose the day that there is fighting in the streets and the leftish mob will be finally extinguished will be a good day. And that's all I want for Christmas.
Posted by: AB Patriot | 2010-11-21 2:37:25 PM
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