The mob wins again

In the latest assault on free speech at a university, three protesters chained themselves together with bike locks Friday at the University of Waterloo, preventing author and Globe and Mail columnist Christie Blatchford from speaking. They repeatedly chanted "racist" in response to views expressed by Blatchford in her new book Helpless: Caledonia's Nightmare of Fear and Anarchy and How the Law Failed All of Us.

It deals with the 2006 incident at Caledonia, Ont. where protesters from the Six Nations reserve took over a nearby construction site.

Invoking a familiar cop-out, university security told Blatchford they could not ensure her safety, so she went home.

Alas, the thugs win again, just like they did earlier this year in keeping Ann Coulter away from the University of Ottawa. The message is that anyone who wants to shut down a speaker on a Canadian campus simply has to stage a protest and a university will cave in. Increasingly, intolerance is winning. As Stephen Harper noted in a speech last week, "anti-Semitism has gained a place at our universities, where at times it is not the mob who are removed, but the Jewish students under attack."

The University of Waterloo should have called for backup, cut the bike locks and dragged away the three protesters, along with their negotiator and media spokesperson.

The right to protest must be defended. But when it shuts down discussion and debate, a cherished constitutional liberty is attacked.