UBC refuses to reinstate Andy Ngo’s lecture, legal action to commence

The JCCF issued a press release that stated: “The Free Speech Club and UBC entered into a contract on November 25, 2019 to hold the event, and the club paid the required booking deposit. The UBC Executive unilaterally cancelled the event in December 2019, stating in an email shortly before Christmas that this was necessary due to concerns ‘about the safety and security of our campus community.’ No specific concerns were stated. If UBC had safety concerns, it did not communicate any specific concerns to The Free Speech Club, or make efforts to address such concerns.”

The JCCF previously sent UBC a letter demanding that the event be reinstated. Lawyer Marty Moore stated that “UBC’s decision effectively punishes a victim of violence by banning him from speaking at UBC, in what appears to be an attempt to appease the violent group antifa.”

Ngo, who is the Editor-at-large for The Post Millennial, said, “The appropriate response to violent extremists who threaten access to information in the academy is not to give in to their demands by cancelling the event. As is demonstrated over-and-over elsewhere, appeasing Antifa ideologues only emboldens them to make more demands. Their goal is to silence opposition through intimidation and violence.”