Waterloo protesters silence Blatchford
The University of Waterloo called off a speech by Globe and Mail columnist Christie Blatchford last Friday night after a small group of protesters accusing Blatchford of racism occupied the stage. Blatchford was there to talk about her book Helpless: Caledonia’s Nightmare of Fear and Anarchy, and How the Law Failed All of Us.
The University of Waterloo called off a speech by Globe and Mail columnist Christie Blatchford last Friday night after a small group of protesters accusing Blatchford of racism occupied the stage.
Blatchford was there to talk about her book Helpless: Caledonia’s Nightmare of Fear and Anarchy, and How the Law Failed All of Us. As readers of her Globe column will know, Blatchford has been vocal about the problems faced by residents of Caledonia, Ont., during the aboriginal land dispute there.
The protesters labelled the views she expresses in the book as racist. The Kitchener-Waterloo Record quoted one protester, Dan Kellar, as saying Blatchford’s book does not explore issues central to the aboriginal occupation, such as historic land claims and treaties. “You can’t take these things out of context,” Kellar is quoted as saying. “To ignore the history is a dangerous thing to do, especially when she is so well-regarded.”
The Record quoted Blatchford as saying her book was intended to look at the situation in Caledonia through “a very narrow prism” around the rule of law and lawlessness.
The Globe’s own review of the book, by Ryerson School of Journalism interim chair Suanne Kelman, says: “Do not look here for a balanced view of the conflict. Blatchford, nobody’s fool, proclaims at the outset that her book will not examine the validity of the native land claim, nor trace the sorry history of Canada’s relations with its First Nations.” But the review goes on to say the book “does a service to everyone” by documenting how government inaction in the face of the protest hurt Caledonia residents.
Tallula Marigold, who was identified as the protesters’ media representative, was quoted in the Wilfrid Laurier University student publication The Cord: “We don’t want people who are really, really racist teaching [the people we love]. And we don’t want that person to have a public forum because it makes it dangerous for others in the public forum.”
University of Waterloo officials said they chose not to proceed with the talk because it appeared Blatchford would not be able to speak, and, according to Michael Strickland, assistant director of media relations, “We also had no interest in providing a photo op of our security dragging three people off the stage.”
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Grant Buckler is a retired freelance journalist and a volunteer with Canadian Journalists for Free Expression and lives in Kingston, Ont.
November 16, 2010
The university has issued an
The university has issued an apology:
http://www.bulletin.uwaterloo.ca/2010/nov/16tu.html
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Apology after author is silenced
University officials issued a statement yesterday in the wake of a Friday night incident in which Globe and Mail columnist Christie Blatchford was prevented from speaking at a scheduled event in the Humanities Theatre.
A group of protesters took exception to what they called the “racist” attitude of her book Helpless, which deals with the four-year standoff over native land claims in the village of Caledonia in Ontario’s Haldimand County. Blatchford had been invited to campus by the university bookstore to speak about her book. After some time, it was announced that her talk would be rescheduled.
The events of the evening were live-blogged by the Wilfrid Laurier University student newspaper The Cord, and got some media attention yesterday.
Says the statement that was issued by the university yesterday: “The University of Waterloo was disappointed that a guest invited to share a particular perspective on a topic of importance to Canadians was silenced by protesters. Globe and Mail columnist Christie Blatchford was scheduled to appear at the university on Friday night to discuss her new book Helpless: Caledonia’s Nightmare of Fear and Anarchy, and How the Law Failed All of Us. Due to safety issues, the university decided to reschedule the event.
“The university considers Friday’s events as an attack on its presence as a place where issues are explored, discussed and at times debated. The freedom to speak and to learn is fundamental to the institution. Waterloo’s ethical behaviour policy states: ‘The University is an autonomous community which exists to further the pursuit and dissemination of knowledge and understanding through scholarship and teaching. The University aims to ensure an environment of tolerance and respect and believes that the right of individuals to advance their views openly must be upheld throughout the University.’ To ensure there is no doubt of the university’s convictions, Waterloo President Feridun Hamdullahpur apologized to Ms. Blatchford, on behalf of the university community, for Friday night’s disruption. He has asked the community to begin planning for a safe, open and respectful dialogue featuring Ms. Blatchford and her book.”
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November 16, 2010
Yes, how awkward, Having to
Yes, how awkward, Having to drag people off the stage to defend a writer’s right to speak. Universities should be dignified politically-correct places where everybody gets along, and no one is exposed to controversial ideas.
Imagine that. A public forum for someone we don’t agree with.
November 16, 2010
Nobody pretends any more that
Nobody pretends any more that universities are bastions of free speech.
November 22, 2010
The Spectre of the
The Spectre of the ARA
Christie Blatchford blocked from speaking in KW by Anti-Racist Action
First posted on the toronto media coop:
http://toronto.mediacoop.ca/story/spectre-ara/5123
photo: Nick Lachance – Cord Weekly
On Friday, November 12th 2010, in response to the presence of white racist apologist Christie Blatchford speaking at the University of Waterloo, members of KW Anti Racist Action locked down the event. Blatchford was planning to promote her book and her shameless racist ideologies, but fortunately, the ARA got to the venue before she did. Three people were locked down together on stage while one took care of the podium. Audience members reacted with a mixture of yells, some supporting the chained people, some berating the speaker(s) for not having paid for the stage.
Christie Blatchford arrived late to her own event, and the official facilitator declined to invite her to the stage. Members of Anti Racist Action feel that it is important to challenge those who attempt to divide our community on the basis of race and class. Christie Blatchford provided the ARA with the perfect opportunity to speak out against her outrageous claims that the police gave indigenous protesters at Caledonia preferential treatment. Blatchford consistently asserts that “the government and police have failed the citizens of Caledonia,” while at the same time declining to comment on any land claim issues, which are truly at the root of any honest analysis of Caledonia.
In the 1990’s, at a peak of southern Ontario’s white supremacist movement, Blatchford accused leftists and anti-racists of violent acts against their community, omitting the violence caused by racists in those communities. While she has admitted that she does not believe Ernst Zundel’s words, she glamorizes his “struggle” and makes the actions of the ARA seem inconsequential at a time when the ARA could not have had more power and community support. Blatchford has proven over and over again that she does not do her research, does not connect ideas and events that are inherently inseparable, and above all, does not respect anybody beyond what her privileged attitude will allow.
Community members feel that this type of one-sided journalism negates context, thereby allowing aggressors to shield themselves under the cloak of victimization. With her new book Helpless, Blatchford is at it again, speaking about Caledonia as if it were a place that the police have no power when in truth, they had an abundance, and they chose to exercise it in a way that did not suit her. With her insistence on representation of the “citizens of Caledonia,” she has demonstrated her astonishing lack of honesty in her analysis, absolutely mind-boggling resistance to common sense, and most worrying of all, her commitment to publicly announcing her insincere and misinformed opinions.
“As members of the KW community, we feel it is important to challenge all those come into our community that create room for racism, sexism and homophobia,” states organizer Kat Wombwell. Other participants in this evening’s action strongly agree, and do not hesitate to add that when people allow themselves to be subjected to the dominance of people such as Christie Blatchford, the whole community suffers and is weakened.
The goal of this action was to silence Blatchford, and make it clear to her and her supporters that the people of Kitchener-Waterloo will not tolerate bigoted, ignorant analyses of our allies, and we will not stand by and watch undisturbed as Blatchford and people who share her views attempt to poison the minds of people across Turtle Island. The members of ARA who participated in this action feel this goal was clearly achieved, as she was not invited to take the stage due to our presence and did not protest at the lack of invitation. We feel it has been made evident to the community that Christie Blatchford and her like are not welcome, and that the KW ARA is alive and well, as well as energetic and well-informed. We are proud to have stopped this racist apologist from further disseminating her lies, and we firmly pledge to be present at the rescheduling of this event in order to continue our Campaign Against Christie.
This action was preceded by a teach-in that was run by the Concerned Settlers of Waterloo Region on the Grand River Territory.
photos by Nick Lachance Cord Weekly:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cordphotography/sets/72157625252478053/show/
three good points:
http://toronto.mediacoop.ca/story/spectre-ara/5123#comment-7810
http://toronto.mediacoop.ca/story/spectre-ara/5123#comment-7824
http://toronto.mediacoop.ca/story/spectre-ara/5123#comment-7826
November 22, 2010
Here’s a very perceptive
Here’s a very perceptive article about creeping conformism and censorship on American campuses, exactly the kind of thing that the Blatchford incident foreshadows: even in Canada, the new “academic culture is destroying its own raison d’etre.”
http://bit.ly/f93TA0