An Ottawa event encouraging students to vote in the Ontario election is in jeopardy after their chosen venue backed out of the event.

Student groups at Carleton and the University of Ottawa had booked Nas, a popular New York rapper, to perform at Rock the Vote at the Ottawa Congress Centre on Oct. 1, leading up to the Oct. 10 election.

Isaac Cockburn said the students were told the Ottawa Congress Centre has a policy against rap music and Nas's lyrics promote violence.
(CBC)

But two weeks ago, when students confirmed their headliner with the centre, they were told the concert could not go ahead, said Isaac Cockburn, vice-president of student issues for the Carleton University Students' Association.

The students say they were told the problem was the musical act they had chosen, something the centre denies.

Cockburn said Peter Seguin, vice-president of food and beverage for the centre, told him the centre has a policy banning hip hop and rap.

"He in fact said that he'd had over 200 requests for hip hop shows that he's turned down over the past couple of years," Cockburn said.

"He said that it was an increased security risk and that it was a vulnerability that the Congress Centre was not willing to take on."

Seguin was not available for comment, said centre spokeswoman Lynne Martichenko.

The students, who had been discussing their musical event with the centre since July and had already made preliminary arrangements for security, lighting and sound, were surprised by the centre's change of tune, Cockburn said.

They had been told that their choice of musical act had to be cleared with the centre, but did not think Nas would be a problem, he added, since the hard rock band Alexisonfire played at the centre last September.

The students complained to the centre's president and Tourism Minister Jim Bradley that the policy was culturally insensitive.

Cockburn added that on Monday, the students received a phone call from the centre's vice-president of client services, Paul Keogh, who said the internal policy was not the reason for the problem, but that Nas's lyrics promote gun violence.

Keogh was also not available for comment, Martichenko said.

Event not suitable for centre: spokeswoman

She declined to be interviewed on tape, and denied that either the artist or his genre of music was the problem.

She said the type of event that the students want to have is not suitable for the congress centre room they tried to book, which has new carpets and chandeliers. The centre is designed for meetings, trade shows and conventions, she added, suggesting that venues such as Scotiabank Place or Lansdowne Park might be more appropriate.

The congress centre had not signed any contract with the students, she said.

Martichenko also drew a CBC reporter's attention to a previous controversy over one of Nas's shows scheduled for Sept. 6. That was to take place at Virginia Tech several months after an April 16 shooting that left 32 people dead and 15 others wounded at the university.

Some of victims' families said a decision to allow Nas to play showed a lack of respect for the victims, given his violent lyrics.

However, university officials said the show was to go ahead.

Meanwhile, the organizers of Rock the Vote are looking for another venue, as it would be extremely difficult to find another act, Cockburn said.