A beautifully designed building cannot cover up the stench that is being left behind by the speakers booked by the VPL's administration.
This is an apt editorial from the Calgary Herald regarding the lunacy of the Vancouver Public Library’s (VPL) administration booking a speaking engagement for Australia-based Exit International, which would have given people information on how the various methods of suicide stack up in comparison to each other. EDITOR’S NOTE: I just received an email from Jean Kavanagh, the VPL’s Manager of Marketing and Communications, who pointed out that:
“This private room booking was first accepted by the Library, but when we learned the content of the second part of the program City Librarian Paul Whitney cancelled the booking.”
This does not change the fact that the Library seems to have a penchant for being caught off guard by the furor created by their choices of speakers – see below.
From this, to their selection of Greg Felton, a Jew-obsessed conspiracy-mongerer who was asked to read excerpts from his book The Host and the Parasite: How Israel’s Fifth Column Consumed America as part of VPL’s Freedom to Read week back in 2008, the powers that be within VPL’s brass are clearly clueless when it comes to their responsibilities as staff of the city. (NOTE: a better take on this baffling choice can be read here by renowned journalist, author and professor Terry Glavin). As it turns out, the crowd was on the verge of a riot that evening following Felton’s ridiculous ramblings (which I had the misfortune to witness in person).
I certainly hope that the VPL board will begin to rein in this administration in their meeting tonight, because regardless of freedom of speech advocacy, these kinds of events are completely inappropriate to have hosted at City of Vancouver facilities.
Just out of curiousity, what is the ratio of furor creating speakers to non-furor creating speakers at the Library?
Free speech is one thing.
Liability is another.
And Paul Whitney does not have an easy job!
What a pathetic lout you are, Ross!
You smear Greg Felton, justify your smear by linking to a libelous attack on him, and then use it to attack on the library. I was also at Mr. Felton’s speech, and can state categorically that you have not only defamed Mr. Felton but also mimsrepresented his book. Have you read it? I didn’t think so. I have read it, and I defy you to find any holes in it.
It takes no intelligence to resort to sterile epithets like “Jew-baiter” to delegitimize informed dissent and attack those courageous enough to challenge conventional fictions. I suggest you watch Mr. Felton’s speech on youtube to reacquaint yourself with his arguments, all of which are meticulously sourced and argued. Anyone who watched it and then read this rant of yours would be forced to conclude that you are a liar and a coward,