Ottawa writers festival wants you to know it has nothing to do with last weekend’s alt-right book expo

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Staff at the Ottawa International Writers Festival, which runs May 2-5, want patrons to know they have nothing to do with a similarly named event that took place last weekend at Lansdowne Park.

The opposing event, variously called the Ottawa International Food and Book Expo or the Ottawa International Book Festival, took place April 27-28 in the Horticulture Building at Lansdowne Park amid allegations that it misled sponsors, used corporate and embassy logos without permission and served as a platform for far-right speakers, including former Ontario PC MPP and anti-lockdown activist Randy Hillier, convoy leader Tom Quiggin, True North’s Andrew Lawton and People’s Party Leader Maxine Bernier.

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Concerns were first raised in a tweet Friday posted by Community Solidarity Ottawa, an organization formed after the convoy protest in 2022 as a “collective response to the politics of division and hate.”  

The allegations were then reported by the non-profit news organization Press Progress, prompting the Ottawa International Writers Festival to issue a news release Monday to clear up confusion. 

Writers fest artistic director Sean Wilson said he’s been hearing from people who are “appalled” at some of the activities they thought his festival was hosting, such as “cougar” singles events and gender-critical discussions. He quickly realized the book expo had bought a domain name — ottawawritersfestival.ca — that looked similar to theirs. The long-running Ottawa International Writers Festival is at writersfestival.org. 

“They got a website that is unfortunately very similar to ours and that’s not ideal, but we are not in any way connected with them,” Wilson said. “What we do is completely different. We bring in brilliant writers from all over the world, and we’ve been doing it for 27 years, and there are no anti-vax single events or UFO authors.” 

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The original writers festival is returning this year to its former home at Library and Archives Canada, 395 Wellington St., where it was held for several years. This year marks its 27th year and 48th festival (since 2004, it has operated two editions, spring and fall, each year). Wilson has been artistic director since the inception in 1997. 

“It’s important to us that everyone feel welcome at the festival,” he said. “This is something we’ve spent a lot of time doing, building up that trust with the community. We got really concerned that this confusion is leading people to say, ‘We don’t want to go there, they’re connected with the trucker convoy.’ Nothing could be farther from the truth.

“What we have coming up is a truly world-class celebration of great ideas and great writing, and we hope people won’t be scared away by the thought that we are affiliated with a group that we are most definitely in no way connected to, or barely aware of. And I do hope they drop that website.”

This year’s spring writers festival starts Thursday with a discussion with Dr. Jennifer Grenz, an Indigenous ecologist and author of Medicine Wheel for the Planet. It also includes a session exploring LGTBQ stories and authors on Friday, and a Saturday Science afternoon highlighting perspectives on climate change. 

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Other authors scheduled to appear over the weekend include Ottawa health-care advocate Dr. Nili Kaplan-Myrth, million-selling Toronto mystery writer Nita Prose and Canada’s former first lady, Sophie Grégoire Trudeau. She closes out the festival Sunday with a talk about her book, Closer Together: Knowing Ourselves, Loving Each Other, which calls for mindfulness and self-reflection in the pursuit of mental health.

The festival also welcomes the return of the popular, on-site Festival Cafe, where Chef Alex prepares reasonably priced hot meals daily for festival-goers. Craft beer and other beverages are also available.

For a schedule of author events, to buy tickets for online or in-person events, and to see the daily menu, go to ottawawriters.org.

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