Coulter's circus comes to town, but can't perform

I knew something was up as I walked towards the University of Ottawa and saw security guards locking the exits surrounding the Marion building.

That's the building where American right-wing commentator Ann Coulter was about to give her much-hyped lecture this evening.

The University of Ottawa is one of three stops on the Ann Coulter's Canadian tour, organized by the International Free Press Society and the Clare Booth Policy Institute.

About 200 demonstrators turned out to shut down Coulter's talk.

And they succeeded.

Canadian conservative commentator Ezra Levant told the audience inside at about 8:10 p.m. that the event was cancelled. The audience was forced to leave through those very exits I saw university security locking.

Levant later wrote this message on Twitter: "Cops advised that proceeding with Coulter event in face of protesters would be dangerous to her and crowd."

Prior to the start of the event, hundreds of people were forced to wait in the rain while organizers tried to usher people through.

As the demonstration escalated, about two dozen police officers and university security guards also showed up to try and quell the crowd.

Outside on the steps of the building's entrance, protestors held up signs while reciting some of Coulter's past quotes, such as: "we should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity."

Other protestors chanted "this is a safe space."

Then at 7:41 p.m., security officials told the crowd outside that someone pulled the fire alarm and tried to get those in line to back away from the doors.

After about 15 minutes, people started to file back into the building, until the event was called off.

One male in his early twenties was escorted out of the foyer of the building by an Ottawa police officer.

Protestors claimed victory, chanting "whose campus? Our campus!" at the entrance to the lecture hall.