It was to be a comedy night destined to make light of current confrontations over the right of free speech. Proceeds from the event were to go to the Canadian Civil Liberties Association.
It didn’t work out that way.
Organizer of the evening, Danny Polishchuk, promoted the event as “No-Fascist T.O Comedy Show”. The title apparently borrowed from a rally called “No Fascist T.O Diversity Rally”. That group successfully achieved the cancellation of a speaking event at Ryerson University called “The stifling of free speech on university campuses”.
Possibly because the title seemed to mock the “rally”, Facebook postings began to equate it with fascist elements, calling it “fascist friendly” and “crypto-fascist”.
Prior to the last Saturday’s comedy event the club owner received a number of phone calls presumably from people who had seen the Facebook postings. They expressed concerns about the whether those participating had ties to extremist groups. He then found the locks on the doors had been jammed and broken.
He subsequently cancelled the show out of concerns for the safety of his staff saying he didn’t want the club to become a potential battleground between political groups.
Polishchuk who is a Jewish stand-up comic, said in an interview with City News that, “saying this show was free speech was equated by some people like this was a Nazi rally”, He then added, “they literally lumped us in, Jewish comedians with white supremacists”.
In another quote in the Star he says, ““Free speech is obviously the most important thing in terms of being a comedian. The moment you’re not allowed to say things and people threaten you, it flies in the face of everything that comedy is about”.
A message on an events webpage reads “Freedom of speech is under attack and comedians are rightfully worried. When Harvard professors aren’t allowed to share ideas and Jews are being called Nazis something is seriously amiss. It’s okay to disagree with other people but silencing them is not the answer’”
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