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Liberal Hypocrisy on Free Speech?

Matt Cockerill
Mar 26, 2010 at 12:01 PM
By Matt Cockerill

Glenn Greenwald reports that Ann Coulter was threatened to be prosecuted by the Canadian for "hate speech" prior to her cancelling a lecture at the University of Ottawa. As disgusting as this is, even more disconcerting is the fact that -- if Greenwald's comments section and my personal experience are any indication -- some liberals are applauding this. Just as they're not really oppose war, but Republican wars, these lefties appear to not really oppose censorship, but only Republican censorship.

Greenwald, of course, is no partisan hack but a man of principle and courage. Here is an excerpt from his great article on the matter, in which he defends Coulter's rights to say things he despises:

Personally, I think threatening someone with criminal prosecution for the political views they might express is quite "hateful."  So, too, is anointing oneself the arbiter of what is and is not sufficiently "civilized discussion" to the point of using the force of criminal law to enforce it.  If I were administering Canada's intrinsically subjective "hate speech" laws (and I never would), I'd consider prosecuting Provost Houle for this letter.  The hubris required to believe that you can declare certain views so objectively hateful that they should be criminalized is astronomical; in so many eras, views that were most scorned by majorities ended up emerging as truth.

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As a Canadian, living in Canada and previously living in Ottawa where this event was to take place, I was extremely dis-heartened to see this happen. Unfortunately the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (http://laws.justice.gc.ca/en/charter/1.html) (similar to the US Bill of Rights) doesn't extend so far as to protect any speech deemed to be "hate speech". Free speech has become so constrained in this country that we now have "Human Rights Commissions" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ontario_Human_Rights_Commission - they are administered on a provincial/state level) which investigates complaints of "discriminatory behavior". The case of Mark Steyn (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Steyn#Canadian_Islamic_Congress_human_...)  is a good example of how disfunctional things have become with regards to free speech here. I don't agree with a lot of his views, but the fact that he is taken before a tribunal a forced to account for his speech is, to me, unacceptable.

Don't get me wrong, for the most part free speech enjoys very strong support in Canada, but it is a slippery slope that we are headed down here when things like this start to take place. I am frustrated to no end at how left-dominated the thinking in Canada has become and how little people care about liberty here.

The best example of this is the fact that the Charter of Rights and Freedoms makes reference, not to the "right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness", but to "life, liberty and the security of person", which in essence means the state will provide your right "security of person".

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Submitted by Jesse C (not verified) on March 26, 2010.

Column, editorial, opinion piece...

:)

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Submitted by Orlando M (not verified) on March 26, 2010.