Event at UW cancelled over $28,500 security cost

‘It’s unbelievable’: Lindsay Shepherd

WATERLOO — A $28,500 security fee has caused a student club co-founded by Lindsay Shepherd to cancel a controversial event it had booked at the University of Waterloo.

The Laurier Society for Open Inquiry, an unofficial student club with executive members from Wilfrid Laurier University and UW, made the decision to cancel on Wednesday after being informed of the cost.

“The original security cost they gave was about $1,600 and I agreed to that,” said Shepherd, adding that the group consequently announced the speaker event Monday.

However on Wednesday, the university contacted LSOI to indicate there would be a change in security and policing costs.

“I think it’s unbelievable,” Shepherd said, explaining the group could not afford the fee.

Nick Manning, UW’s associate vice president of communications, said reaction to the event that included protests, required the university re-evaluate security needs.

“The landscape is changing as people express their opposition on social media,” said Manning, adding that charging groups for security is something the university has done in the past.

LSOI had planned to host the

event on April 30. It was to include speaker Faith Goldy, a far-right commentator who was let go from The Rebel Media last year for appearing on a neo-Nazi podcast. She was invited by LSOI to give an anti-immigration talk on Laurier’s campus in March, but the event was cancelled when a fire alarm was pulled. Also to speak was Ricardo Duchesne, a professor from the University of New Brunswick and author of “Canada in Decay: Mass Immigration, Diversity, and the Ethnocide of Euro-Canadians.”

They were to talk about “multiculturalism, borders and identity in Canada.”

While the event is controversial, the university said it is willing to have LSOI host it on campus.

“When we were asked to rent the space to the off-campus group

Laurier Society of Open Inquiry, it would have been easier to say no with controversial speaker Faith Goldy slated to speak,” said UW’s president and vice-chancellor, Feridun Hamdullahpur in a statement.

“But, we are a university that stands by our principles of openness and freedom of expression, especially when controversial topics are in question.

“If we do not, this absence of remaining a neutral place of debate diminishes our credibility as an academic institution.”

While the university has taken the position of permitting LSOI to host the event, it has not been without opposition. The UW Black Association for Student Expression planned a demonstration and the Indigenous Students’ Association at UW created an online petition in opposition.

Rather than calling for the event to be shut down, the Faculty Association of University of the Waterloo decided to raise

money online for the Waterloo Indigenous Student Centre and a student scholarship program selected by the UW Black Association for Student Expression.

“We have a diverse array of views by our members and not all of them want to see us advocate for select events on campus to be shut down,” explained Bryan Tolson, association president and UW professor in the department of civil and environmental engineering.

“We realized that our response to this event ... must include showing strong support for our multicultural community on campus.”

Shannon Dea, UW philosophy professor and the vice president of FAUW, created the GoFundMe page this week with a goal to raise $5,000 — that was surpassed within a day. By Wednesday, it had raised more than $10,000.