Two speaking events featuring Dr. James Lindsay, author of Cynical Theories: How Activist Scholarship Made Everything about Race, Gender, and Identity―and Why This Harms Everybody have been deplatformed from ticketing site Eventbrite.
The “Protect Our Kids” speaking events are planned for October 2 in Edmonton and October 3 in Calgary.
Upwards of 200 tickets had already been sold before the event listing was removed under Eventbrite’s policy “Hateful, Dangerous or Violent Content,” according to organizer David Parker of Take Back Alberta.
“We have determined that your event is not permitted on the Eventbrite platform as it violates our Community Guidelines and Terms of Service,” Eventbrite Trust and Safety wrote in a letter.
“As a result, your event has been unpublished.”
Parker noted that Take Back Alberta has previously sold tickets for other events through Eventbrite and never encountered an issue.
True North asked Eventbrite if it received any complaints about the event listing but did not receive a response in time for publication.
The Edmonton Protect Our Kids session was to take place at Life Church, and the Calgary version at the Glenmore Inn, but Parker said both venues cancelled on him after information about the event went viral on social media.
Parker plans for the events to go ahead in alternate venues that have not yet been publicized.
Parker wanted Lindsay’s speeches to tackle trans ideology, as members of Take Back Alberta expressed a desire to better understand parental rights, gender transition surgeries and detransition in youth, and explicit sexual content being taught in schools.
“If we’re actually gonna stop this, we have to be involved, to get engaged – show up for our democracy,” Parker told True North.
“I feel that James Lindsay has one of the best articulations of how this ideology that we’re confronting developed: what it is, what drives it, how to understand it.”
Editor’s note: David Parker is married to a True North reporter.
