Free Speech in Canada: Dead? Or Dying?

Is free speech dead in Canada? We have examples.

Most recently, the Alberta Human Rights Commission held a hearing on a complaint that a magazine published the famous Muhammed cartoons. The publisher, Ezra Levant in a video recorded hearing gave an impassioned defense of speech, but made the excellent point that merely by holding a hearing, the Canadian government is punishing the publication which, after all, had to take the time from its business to defend itself, to pay for lawyers, and the take the risk that the government would punish it further. Watch the several videos here. Listen to and watch the hearing officer. Chilling.

This is not the only outrage by the Alberta Human Rights Commission. In November 2007, the Human Rights Commission punished a an individual who had written a letter to the editor to the effect hat the homosexual agenda advanced by Alberta schools was bad for children. The grossly misnamed Alberta Human Rights Commission found that it, as the government, had the right to assure that opinions be expressed only responsibly and that it had the power to judge when a contrary opinion was responsible expressed. Hard to believe? Read it yourself. See page 74.

In Toronto, as we write, McMaster University, a formerly Baptist school, has sued Paul L. Williams for defamation, because Dr. Williams wrote about his research that showed that one or more jihadists had been at the university and may have gained access to nuclear material sufficient for a dirty bomb. Canadian law does not recognize the sorts of defenses to defamation we have in the United States on matters of great public interest. The defendant in Canadian courts has the burden to prove the truth of allegedly defamatory statements.

In America, we used to think of Canada as a free country. No longer.