When a raucous crowd sparked a last-minute decision to cancel a speech from right-wing American pundit Ann Coulter at the University of Ottawa on March 23, many Canadians celebrated this obstruction to her freedom of speech as a victory.
Even with Coulter’s reputation for hate speech, this was not a victory for tolerance — it was a black eye for open discourse at U of O.
In her career as a columnist and political commentator Coulter has said things that are rude, inflammatory and downright offensive. At the University of Western Ontario earlier this week, she told a Muslim student to “take a camel” instead of flying.
So it’s no surprise she was greeted by hundreds of placard-bearing protesters at her Ottawa engagement. The protesters had every right to be there. But Coulter had every right to speak.
Freedom of speech does not mean only tolerating views you want to hear. Holders of all opinions have a right to speak publicly, and members of the public have the right to decide whether they want to listen. Society grows not just by promoting good ideas, but by considering and rejecting bad ones.
By attempting to ruin Coulter's chance to speak, the protesters were acting just as intolerantly as they accuse Coulter of being.