Gilmour talk shut down

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Controversy surrounding David Gilmour has emerged once again as a visit to Waterloo was abruptly cancelled.

The author, who has lately been a hot topic in the media, was scheduled to speak about his new book at the Waterloo Public Library on Monday night.

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David Gilmour (Contributed)

However the organizers of this event, Words Worth Books, and the Waterloo Public Library, pulled the plug on Friday, announcing that the โ€œtiming is not right for an event.โ€

Mandy Brouse issued a clarification statement to The Cord, explaining the last-minute decision.

โ€œWe organized that event months ago before all the media attention,โ€ she wrote. โ€œWe were getting calls from media outlets, locally and from Toronto, who were eager to attend the event, not to meetDavid Gilmour the author but to confront David Gilmour the man.โ€

Gilmour first gained media attention last week, when the University of Toronto instructor revealed in a Hazlitt article that he was โ€œnot interested in teaching books by women.โ€

He continued on to state that he had only taken a position at the University of Torontoโ€™s Victoria College so that he could teach the people he โ€œtruly, truly loved.โ€

โ€œUnfortunately, none of those happen to be Chinese, or women,โ€ he said in the article. โ€œWhat I teach is guys. Serious, heterosexual guys.โ€
Words Worth Books felt that bringing the controversial writer to Waterloo would shift focus away from Gilmourโ€™s novel and would defeat his purpose for the event.

โ€œA media event was not the original intention for Monday night, but a way for us to connect David Gilmour to his readers,โ€ Brouse explained. โ€œIt is our opinion that this would not have happened had we gone ahead with the event.โ€

Following Gilmourโ€™s controversial remarks last week, a media firestorm broke out giving the author much negative publicity.
Students at the University of Toronto were especially involved in the upheaval, with some even organizing protests, rallies, and petitions.

โ€œThis thing went viral,โ€ explained Rachel Bulatovich, a fourth-year English student at the University of Toronto and current student of Gilmour.

โ€œI was on campus for those few days,โ€ she said. โ€œEveryone got mad and that snowballed into this crusade to get him fired.โ€

Bulatovich, who has known Gilmour since her first year in university, explained that students were very present on social media, hoping to call attention to his remarks.

โ€œOne of my friends was even trying to convince me to go to this protest, saying that she thought there would be an โ€˜intellectual discussion there,โ€™โ€ she said. โ€œI didnโ€™t think so because rallies and protests are used to bring attention to cause.โ€

โ€œThe difference here is that everybody is already paying attention and everyone already knows whatโ€™s going on.โ€

Bulatovich went on to explain that she did not agree with the โ€œlynch-mobโ€ approach that her peers had towards the issue.

โ€œA protest isnโ€™t providing a good stage for leveled, thoughtful debate, which is what I think the course of action should be,โ€ she said. โ€œI think once you get yourself in that situation thereโ€™s really nothing you can do except keep quiet until it blows over.โ€

Now that Gilmourโ€™s event in Waterloo has been cancelled, questions surrounding censorship have arisen.

The Waterloo Record had reported that David Worsley, the co-owner of Words Worth, did not want to cancel the talk because โ€œhe was not in the business of censorship.โ€

However, Words Worth strongly stated that the decision came from Words Worth alone and was not affiliated with the Waterloo Public Library.

โ€œWe originally brought the event to Waterloo Public Library,โ€ Brouse explained further in her statement. โ€œIt was for us to decide and it was difficult decision for us to make.โ€


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