Ann Coulter finds Canada a safe space for her comeback tour

Not since Bill Clinton’s rapping detractor Sister Souljah was scared away from York University in November 1992 — after the so-called Heritage Front worked the phones to threaten trouble in the days before call display — has a speaker booked for an institute of higher learning earned so much attention for not showing up. Ann Coulter was ready, willing and able, mind — it was the police, scanning messages on Facebook, who advised organizers to keep her away from the podium at the University of Ottawa, whose provost, François Houle, didn’t really want her to begin with. Matt Drudge, longtime Coulter consort, was quick on the draw with typing out her exaggerated relay of the facts: “2000 protesters surrounding building with rocks and sticks — pulled fire alarm in building. Cops shut it down!” The reality was far more restrained, albeit with standard-issue keffiyehs spotted alongside “Coulter Over Canada” tour T-shirts. No need to strike out the dates on the back of the shirt since she did make it to Ottawa: a private $250 dinner reception was in full swing as her bodyguard sized up the scene. The rest of the story told itself on Twitter.

Were it not for the 17-year-old Muslim student on Monday night at the University of Western Ontario fecklessly volleying Coulter’s stale jokes back at her — mainly, a line about how flying carpets were a safer alternative for those complaining about suspicious treatment on planes after 9/11, nervously read off a BlackBerry — the visit of Coulter may have remained off the radar of those showing up to cause a commotion. She had pretty much faded off the American right-wing radar in the early throes of the 2008 presidential election, after stating Hillary Clinton was a better conservative voice than John McCain.

David Frum, the former Canadian who called the passing of the Health Care Reform bill in the United States “a victory for the conservative entertainment industry” is an example of the kind of pundit who’d rather keep their distance from Coulter’s invective. But the Conservative Party of Canada are the ones facing accusation of a double standard: last year, British MP George Galloway was kept away from Ottawa for his opposition to neo-con policies in the Middle East — but immigration minister Jason Kenney made no such fuss when Coulter’s visit was announced last month. Who more deserved to remain unheard?

“THIS IS A SAFE SPACE” read a sign held at the entrance of the hall where Coulter was scheduled to speak, held by a woman who didn’t feel a similar vigil was warranted earlier this month amidst antagonistic displays for Israeli Apartheid Week, because it’s easier to intimidate somebody being paid to face their detractors. Coulter is asking people to turn out to politely yell at her — that’s why advance tickets were offered as freely for students rocks and sticks — so it was really just a case of last-minute demand being greater than supply.

Coulter will return home with a new hook, about how the right to free expression is in total shambles north of the border — and so, maybe the U.S.A. isn’t such a lousy place, after all.

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