Editorial

Strong and [subject to reasonable limits]

Cam Charron - Sports Editor

What rights should we give to a woman who once said that Americans “should invade [Muslim] countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity.”?

The same woman declared once that torture should be a “televised spectator sport.”

American conservative commentator-slash-writer has never been one to stray from controversy, so when it was announced that she was going to speak on the campus of the University of Ottawa, it was likely wise of François Houle, the university’s vice-president academic and provost, also a professor of political science, to remind Coulter of our limits on free speech in this country.

We are subject to limits on our rights and freedoms, such as free expression, under Section 1 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Section 319 of the Criminal Code of Canada says that a hate crime is someone who “incites hatred against an identifiable group” in a public place.

Before we get into the benefits of those laws, we can pretty well all agree that if Coulter were Canadian, she wouldn’t last very long with the views she has.

A number of anti-Coulter protesters showed up at the U of O and Coulter, fearing for her safety, cancelled the event. She said on her official website that Canadians had accused her of “thought crimes” and that Houle should be prosecuted for hate crimes for his pre-emptive warning towards her. ‘Ann Coulter’ has been a trending topic on social-networking website ‘Twitter’ for the past week or so in Canada because of the whole fiasco.

And now, all of a sudden, Ann Coulter is the saint of free speech in this country. It really is a sad state of affairs.

With the murky language our laws have surrounding freedom of speech in this country, what’s the point of even having it? The laws didn’t seem to prevent Queen’s University two years ago to pay students to eavesdrop and break-up conversations that might be “deemed offensive.”

This country is a combination of diverse populations from all over the world and we need to respect that, but we also need to respect the ideals of Western liberalism that the country was founded upon. As a Canadian, I’m honoured that so many people choose to come to Canada and live here. After all, I was only born here. If our freedoms are what set us apart from other places, we may need to reform our laws.

Let Coulter speak. Let Coulter speak and make a fool of herself and chastised by local and student media for the things she says. As a student journalist, I would welcome the opportunity to have Coulter speak here and ask her questions and debate with her. It’s part of what makes this country what it is.