In the last year, we have seen some alarming examples of how Canada has rolled back on free speech, particularly in cases of alleged discrimination (here and here). However, the Supreme Court of Canada has handed down a unanimous decision that offers great hope that free speech is not dead in the North. The Court ruled 9-0 in favor of controversial Vancouver radio broadcaster Rafe Mair in his libel case.
Mair was accused of defaming Kari Simpson, a Christian advocate, who he tied to book burning.
Mr. Mair, a former cabinet minister, used a radio show to criticize Mair for her support of a Surrey school board decision to ban three books depicting same-sex parents. Comparing the policy to Nazi Germany, Mair said “[f]or Kari’s ‘homosexual,’ one could easily substitute ‘Jew.’ I could see Governor Wallace – in my mind’s eye I could see Governor Wallace of Alabama standing on the steps of a schoolhouse shouting to the crowds that no Negroes would get into Alabama schools as long as he was governor. It could have been blacks last Thursday night just as easily as gays.”
In a refreshing moment of clairty, Mr. Justice Ian Binnie said that “We live in a free country, where people have as much right to express outrageous and ridiculous opinions as moderate ones.”
It is a decision that Canadians should be rightfully proud of and a relief to those of us who have been watching our neighbors with increasing alarm.
For a copy of the opinion, click here.
For the full story, click here.
Wasn’t there a portion of the NAFTA treaty that provided for Canada & The U.S. to merge under the new name: “Mexico Sucks?”
Bob, esq.
Check out Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America…US, Canada, and Mexico…at SPP.gov, wikipedia, and Council on Foreign Relations.
This stuff is amazing. Only thing I can figure is that it is a legal way of ripping off the natural resources of Canada while cutting out American workers.
Bypasses both Congress and US citizens. It is a government unto itself with international trade laws that supercede the sovereignty of any of these nations.
And, of course, denies existence of a proposed NAFTA 6 lane highway from Mexico into Canada. Texas Department of transportation with funding from private interest in Spain appears to be the initial point.
So much for the US Constitution’s investment of sovereignty in its people.
Even with globalization faltering, the SPP moves on.
It’s only free speech when a Jew is arguing for it. When a German resident denied the holocaust he was charged with spreading hate and deported. Canada has the same problem as the US and much of Europe. It makes me sometimes look fondly at Iran.