A very disturbing free speech case has emerged out of Canada: another example of how the West is abandoning principles of free speech in its widening definitions of hate speech. The Alberta Human Rights Commission has punished Rev. Stephen Boission and the Concerned Christian Coalition for anti-gay speech, not only awarding damages but censuring future speech that the Commission deems inappropriate. Boission’s offense came in the form of a letter containing anti-gay language.
Boissoin’s 2002 letter was published in the Red Deer Advocate with the headline “Homosexual agenda wicked” and comparing gay people to pedophiles and drug dealers.
Darren Lund, a high school teacher, with the Alberta Human Rights Commission filed a complaint that the letter constituted a hate crime.
Notably, Lund is now a professor of social justice in Calgary. Yet, he seems to have few qualms about criminalizing free speech: “There are some reasonable lines that need to be drawn and some responsibilities that come along with free speech. . . . I think the ruling was very strong on that, that you can’t just hide behind saying something is my opinion or my belief and that somehow allows hate speech.”
Notably, while the Commission ruled that “there is no direct victim who has come forward,” it still ordered damages paid to Lund.
It further ordered that “Mr. Boissoin and [his organization] The Concerned Christian Coalition Inc. shall cease publishing in newspapers, by email, on the radio, in public speeches, or on the Internet, in future, disparaging remarks about gays and homosexuals.”
Wow.
Unfortunately, this is only the latest such attack on free speech among our closest allies, including Western countries, as discussed here and here
For the full story, click here and here.
I personally could not disagree more with this letter and I find Boissoin and this group of homophobes to be extremely obnoxious. However, it is far more frightening to see an individual and group punished vicariously for the crime of another individual. Moreover, there are many people who believe that homosexuality is a sin and social scourge. I may find them to be prehistoric and prejudiced, but free speech does not exist to protect “good speech” alone. The West appears to be sacrificing this precious right on the alter of political correctness. We do not need the first amendment to protect us from popular speech. What we are seeing in places like Canada is the compelled conformity with majoritarian values. Bossoin and homophobes like him should defeated the open market of ideas — not coerced or punished into silence.
No wonder Canada is electing conservatives in droves.
The blowback on this is impacting Canada politics big time and helping Conservatives take control.
No wonder Canada is electing Conservatives in droves. The blowback on this is turning Canada way to the right.
Apparently you don’t have any understanding or knowledge about the Canadian constitution. The Canadian constitution does not recognize free speech as an inalienable right, but it does recognize the right not to be discriminated against for any reason whatsoever, including sexual orientation or religion as one. So, it comes as no surprise to me that when faced with the choice violation of free speech vs discrimination that the courts are going to always go with protecting what the constitution says is the higher human right. Canada is NOT America. And Don’t presume that the American constitution which was written hundreds of years ago, which until the ERA gets accepted still permits all kinds of discrimination because the founding fathers could not foresee a world where all people (not just white men) were created equal, don’t presume that that constitution that our current president says is just a piece of paper, has the moral high ground over the Canadian constitution which was written 30 years ago by the most brilliant political minds of the last century that actually makes equality and in alienable right (and health care one too BTW) and forbids discrimination in every form. Get off your high horse!
timog:
“…don’t presume that that constitution that our current president says is just a piece of paper, has the moral high ground over the Canadian constitution which was written 30 years ago by the most brilliant political minds of the last century”
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Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. And I would gladly trade a month-long audience with the entire Canadian Constitutional Convention for one dinner with Thomas Jefferson. That they may have done it better in your judgment does not make up for the fact that they did not do it first. Eh?
You may also want to consider that the reason for the fictionalization of Canada from its rogue province, Quebec, may be laid directly at the door of the Canadian Constitution. At least that ’s the opinion of one respected political scientist, Charles Blattberg. Quebec’s signature remains conspicuously absent today. It would be like California refusing to adopt the US Constitution yet remaining in the Union. Perfection it is not, despite the “most brilliant minds” then on the planet.
oops, make that word “fractionalization” in paragraph 2. Darn spell-checker.