CTV's Daniele Hamamdjian said "a combination of overcapacity and utter disorganization" contributed to the collapse of the event.
Prior to the cancellation, Hamamdjian said only a small number of students were tasked with verifying the names of the people who had signed up to attend Coulter's talk.
"It was a disaster in terms of just organization, which is probably one of the reasons why it was cancelled," Hamamdjian told CTV News Channel from Ottawa on Wednesday morning.
Police eventually showed up to the scene and blocked the door to the building, but Hamamdjian said she doubted whether the combination of protesters and disorganization actually constituted "a physical risk to Ann Coulter."
By the way, all reports of tables being "thrown aside" emanate from Deb Gyapong's twitter feed, as far as I can tell. She now says she was not actually witness to these events.
deBeauxOs notes in the comments that it's the Ottawa Campus Conservatives that organized this event, as confirmed by D. Akins' original post.
Canadian neocons and righwingnuts react hysterically and testosterically to reports that chaos reigns outside the Hall where Coulter is scheduled to speak.
ReplyDeleteUpon closer examination, it appears the campus group (Young Conservatives) tasked with organizing the local event collapsed in a MASSIVE FUBAR.
Typical.
This was pretty much verified on CBC today (and of course I can't find the story now) by a reporter who was there and said that the vast majority of Ezra's scary mob of 2,000 were actually just people waiting to get into the hall. She placed the number of actual protesters at maybe a couple of hundred.
ReplyDeleteI'm sticking by my theory: this was planned from the very beginning as a PR stunt for Coulter and Levant. You just have to watch his overwrought performance as he informs the audience of the cancellation to smell the bullshit:
http://bit.ly/dl6Jbl
Wingnut reaction with video
ReplyDeletehttp://www.socon.ca/or_bust/
OK according to Colby Cosh, Coulter has disinvited Craig Chandler. Meanwhile, just five minutes ago I heard CBC Calgary radio saying the talk in Calgary will go ahead, and introducing Chandler as one of the organizers.
ReplyDeleteWill Craig appear at the talk, looming menacingly? Will Ezra have to defend Ann? Or will Ann defend Ezra? With three drama clowns together, something's gotta give!
Colby Cosh link:
ReplyDeletehttp://www2.macleans.ca/2010/03/23/coulter-the-she-devil-in-her-own-words/
She now says she was not actually witness to these events.
ReplyDeleteAh, journalism at its finest.
If I were a bastard, I'd be looking at ways to gin up the hysteria in Calgary: tweeting about shutting it down, Facebooking cryptically about "usual meeting places" and Stormfronting about all the Zionists involved, etc. etc. and then sitting back to observe the fizz.