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Coulter would be expected to draw fewer protesters in Calgary because that is basically Conservative Party country and they are probably closer to her beliefs than any other group in the country.
According to Shannon Montgomery of The Canadian Press, security personnel at the Red and White Club, a University of Calgary-owned venue, said that about 20 protesters broke a window while banging on the door during Coulter's speech.
They held signs. One of them said "Calgary is Cold to Coulter." A small child's sign read, "I don't have a camel or a flying carpet, can you lend me your broomstick?" -- a reference to a comment Coulter made earlier this week to a Muslim woman at a university in London, Ont.
According to the Montgomery account:
"The scene was vastly different than the one Coulter faced in Ottawa a few days earlier, and she remarked how she felt so much safer and that she knew it would be the best of the three stops she made in Canada.
"The audience gave a huge cheer when Coulter proposed making Calgary the 51st of the United States.
"She said Canada was the least diverse country she's seen -- which brought objections from the audience, but she pointed out that everyone in the crowd looked like she did.
"Coulter spoke a lot about how there's standards for Liberals but not for everyone else, especially Conservatives. 'In conclusion, if anything I've said tonight offended you, my work is done,' she said to end her speech."
Coulter's comment about everyone in the Calgary crowd looking like herself is classic racism, the type of comment made in the racially explosive period of the American South. Coulter's most thoroughly racist comment, however, had been made earlier in her Canadian speaking tour.
The event was supposed to be held at the University of Calgary campus, but was moved after her speech at the University of Ottawa was cancelled earlier when hundreds of protesters came out after learning about comments she made at another university.
Coulter told a Muslim student at the University of Western Ontario that she should "take a camel" for international travel after the student challenged a previous Coulter statement that Muslims shouldn't be allowed on airplanes and should travel on flying carpets instead.
When Coulter was later confronted for making a racist remark she followed a frequent practice of seeking to dismiss the comment as "satire." There was nothing satirical about it but it was loaded with racist innuendo aimed at Arabs. Canada is a diversified society and comments such as that made by Coulter are apt to be vigorously challenged, as occurred in this instance.
Using a Coulter double standard, she indicated an intention to file a complaint with the Canadian Human Rights Commission over the way she was treated by the University of Ottawa.
Provost Francois Houle sent Coulter a note before her speech, urging her to educate herself about Canada's hate laws. Houle warned that promoting hatred against an identifiable group could lead to criminal charges.
The inflammatory commentator pulled out of that appearance after 1,500 people tried to get into the venue that was already filled to capacity with pre-registered guests. Another few hundred loudly protested her speech outside the building.
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