We have previously discussed some of the more controversial cases coming before Canadian human rights commissions, which enforce vague and ever-expanding rules on hate speech and class-based insults. The latest target of a complaint is Todd, a single Dad who was looking for a babysitter for his boys aged 5 and 8. When he was contacted by an applicant, he asked the applicants age and gender. He is now facing an investigation by the Alberta Human Rights Commission into whether he violated the human rights of the applicant.

I have previously criticized the new law, enforced by the U.K.’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), that bans gender stereotypes in advertising. It is the ultimate expression of the “nanny state” phenomenon in the United Kingdom where speech is increasingly regulated and sanctioned by the state along a best values agenda. Commercials for Philadelphia Cream Cheese and Volkswagen were banned. To understand how these laws are really speech controls, one needs only to watch the commercials and the vacuous response of one of the chief regulators in a recent interview.