KITCHENER — Lindsay Shepherd has booked the Kitchener Public Library theatre for a Laurier Society for Open Inquiry event titled "Why Canada needs more immigrants: debunking the alt-right."

The lecture will be given by David Clement, the director of external relations of the American-based Libertarian organization, Students for Liberty.

Clement is based in Oakville and earned his graduate and undergraduate degrees from Wilfrid Laurier University.

"The libertarian perspective is kind of interesting because in terms of open borders, it's not really right wing and it's not really left wing," said Shepherd, a graduate student at Laurier.

"So we thought it would be something interesting to consider."

The event comes just weeks after the student club co-founded by Shepherd tried to host a anti-immigration talk on Laurier's campus by far-right former Rebel Media host, Faith Goldy.

The event drew hundreds in protest while hundreds also lined up to attend. It was cancelled just before it started when a fire alarm was pulled.

Shepherd said her student group booked its latest speaker event at the Kitchener library because Laurier recently changed its booking policies, making it more complicated for a nonofficial student club to book a room.

"The university's Booking of University Space and Facilities policy was updated last year," said the university in a statement.

"The related online-booking form is currently being modified to ensure that the university receives sufficient information, and in a timely fashion, to allow us to complete an assessment of all event factors that impact the health and safety of the community."

"We just decided to go to the Kitchener Public Library, but it's going to cost us," said Shepherd, adding there was no charge for the previous event booked at Laurier.

The Kitchener library charged the club $190 to book the room and also required the club pay $225 for additional security.

The event, scheduled for next Monday was only announced on Tuesday. Shepherd said she has not heard of any protest related to the upcoming event.

Clement said his interest in researching the benefits of immigration began when he was a graduate research assistant for Laurier professor and Canada research chair in international human rights Rhoda E. Howard-Hassmann.

"My talk will be focusing on why, in general, Canada needs more immigration and not less immigration, with a focus on debunking many of the popular claims that people in the alt-right — I use (that word) in air quotations — perpetuate," he said.

"My presentation is really data focused (and) very focused on the economics and the data behind why immigration is a net benefit."

Clement's talk will be followed by a question and answer session. It will run from 7:15 p.m. to 8:30 on Monday. The event is free and open to the public — about 200 people are able to attend.

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