OTTAWA REPORTBACK! (via Ottawa Against Fascism): Mission accomplished at the OPL: Fiamengo event shut down
In spite of our warnings, the Ottawa Public Library refused to cancel the reservation for the UOttawa Students for Free Speech’s event with infamous misogynistic and Islamophobic professor, Janice Fiamengo, and so we called for a rally to picket the library and for people to take action to de-platform this fascist sympathizer. The event was successfully stopped.
Fiamengo and the UOSFS’ sympathies with racist and sexist ideologies were exposed in a note we put out last week (posted below), clearly detailing the uOttawa professor’s involvement in the sexist “men’s rights activist” (MRA) movement, her defense of male-perpetrated sexual violence, her vitriolic writings against Muslim people, and her participation in white supremacist channels. The UOSFS, meanwhile, was exposed as a typical free-speech-advocating façade for far-right organizers, looking to provide a platform to such speakers, much like the group at Wilfrid-Laurier University who tried last week to organize a talk by avowed fascist and anti-Semite Faith Goldy, only to be shut down in a similar fashion. In both cases, far-right activists used free speech advocacy as a front to disguise their real agenda.
The library’s decision to go forward with the reservation, in spite of all the information provided to them, was both irresponsible and hypocritical. It was irresponsible because the library was knowingly allowing fascist sympathizers to organize inside its doors and propagate their hateful rhetoric. It was also hypocritical since, last November, the library did cancel a reservation made by the racist, anti-Muslim group ACT for Canada after being presented with information linking their event to racist violence. This was also not the first time Fiamengo had a speaking event disrupted in this city, including one at the same library three years ago, so it’s clear the library had enough information at its disposal to understand what was really going on and what to expect.
The event predictably attracted the fascist activists who typically attend anti-Muslim rallies and try to disrupt left-wing and pro-Palestine events: the “male-chauvinist” and “Western-supremacist” Proud Boys and other far-right goons who see violence as an outlet to validate their fragile masculinity . Surely enough, as soon as we set up our picket, a few of these brown shirts, under police protection, instigated a fight by pulling anti-fascists inside the library to attack them. Despite this, we did not allow them to derail our efforts, and maintained our position at the library entrances. It was only through forceful police intervention that the speaker was able to make her way inside
As the UOSFS event got under way however, a fire alarm was pulled, forcing the evacuation of the library. Footage from UOSFS reveals a crowd of only a dozen people attending the event inside. A significant portion of their supporters, as could be expected, showed up looking for a violent confrontation and remained lurking around the anti-fascist bloc, trying to start another fight and not showing any particular interest in the question of free speech. We remained steady in our picket, exposing the library and informing the public about what was going on. After about an hour, people were allowed back into the library but the event had been delayed so much that they were forced to cancel the event and Fiamengo was unable to spread her hateful speech.
