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Steyn changes venues
October 26, 2010
By
Kaleigh Rogers
Mark Steyn’s campus controversy won’t be happening on campus after all.
After announcing the author’s plans to speak at Western, Strictly Right and the Campus Coalition for Democracy said they were overwhelmed with interest from students and the London community and decided to book a larger venue downtown to accommodate the expected crowd.
“Unfortunately, there were no available rooms at Western large enough to handle the demand. We moved off campus so that more people would have the chance to listen to Mark,” Ryan Ruppert, president of the club, explained.
Steyn, a Canadian-born author and activist, has received attention for his controversial personal views on human rights, free speech, and particularly Islam.
Once the decision was made to leave campus, the groups approached the London Convention Centre, but were met with another brick wall, according to Ruppert. He claimed the LCC first accepted their request, then later rejected it.
“The London Convention Centre cancelled Mark Steyn because they did not like what he was going to say — that represents a stance against free speech,” Ruppert said.
But Lori Da Silva, general manager of the LCC, said the LCC did not book the event because they did not provide enough information in time to move finalize the booking.
“Our contract is with the organization booking the event. Our contract has nothing to do with the speaker coming in,” Da Silva explained.
Da Silva also said the LCC didn’t believe they had appropriate space to accommodate the number of attendees, which were estimated at the time of booking to be from 800 to 1,000.*
Ruppert claimed the LCC cited pressure from local Islamic groups when they declined to host the event.
But Da Silva asserted there was never any pressure from outside groups, and Steyn’s politics had no effect on their decision.
“This event was never actually booked or contracted. There was certainly no mention of it being held at the Convention Centre, so the general public would never have been aware that this was being held here. There was absolutely no pressure from any outside groups,” she explained.
Correction (Oct. 26, 2010): The sentence was amended to clarify that the LCC could accommodate the size of the event but felt the space wasn’t appropriate.
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Kaleigh is the Multimedia Director for Volume 105 of the Gazette. She is currently pursuing a MA degree in Journalism and holds a BA in Honors English with a minor in Creative Writing.
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