Ceili wrote:Fishin' I was being obtuse. I don't think I succeeded.
This article, an opinion piece, missed out on the fact that Canada does not have 'freedom of speech' laws directly laid out in our constitution, but Canadians cherish this right far more than most nations. Because we don't have "Freedom of Speech"... we are constantly tinkering with precedent, it's not pretty but at least people don't get stomped by organizations like the KKK who hide behind amendments written before lawmakers concieved of their evil existence.
As for some of the examples given in the article, they are of an extreme opinion and are very biased. Canadians believe as a nation in equality and freedom, we just go about it in different ways than our neighbours to the south. Political Correctness is invading our shores, it was not our invention. PC ideals were created in the US, where one cannot constitutionally criminalize hate, so it has become a tool to shun the perpetrators.
You dnon't see church groups up here picketing homesexual "gay bashing" funerals. We don't have the right, and rightly so.
Well sorry Celli, I strongly disagree.
The 1st amendment guaranteeing Free Speech is the best thing about the United States. For all of our faults, this is one of the things that we have more definately got right -- and it has saved us in more than one occasion.
The people who wrote the Bill of Rights, specifically Jefferson et al.,
did conceive of organizations like the KKK who promoted ideas considered offensive by most of us. In the Federalist papers it was pointed out (I don't have the time to come up with a link right now) that popular speech (i.e. non-offensive) does not need protection.
Free Speech means free speech. It means that I have the right to express my views no matter how offensive they are to you. I have the right to be a Nazi if I want, or a Communist or a Moslem or a Peace Activist. Furthermore I have the right to publically express my views and to try to convince you to agree with me.
Now, before you get upset that I am comparing Nazi's Communiists and Peace Activists -- Let me explain. These three groups are the same in that they hold view that many people consider offensive. If a majority has the political ability to ban a way of thinking, like Nazis because it is "offensive", then they can ban any political view that is offensive. The rights of Civil rights activists and Peace Activists and Moslems are protected even when they are drastically unpopular
because the rights of the KKK are protected. There is no other logical way to protect rights of causes I believe strongly when they become unpopular.
The answer of the United States - as instituted by our founding fathers and enshrined in our Bill of Rights is both brillant and just.
Every American has the right to express their views in public discourse. Neither the government nor the majority opinion have the ability to suppress any group becuase of their beliefs.
This way all views can be discussed in public and decided in the public mind. Nazi''s have the right in the U.S. to express their views hold rallies, publish books and speak to you personally without fear of prosecution. But, do you know what? Nazi's don't have very much political or social power here, precisely because their ideas are discussed openly and rejected.
I am not afraid of hate speech. I can answer it openly and I trust that it will be defeated by truth. I am very afraid of censorship. Allowing ideas to be supressed means that they will need to fester - unchallenged - underground. Worse yet it leaves the government and the majority with may to much power to decide what ideas are suitable for public discourse.
The US has it right on this one.
