top of page

Canadian Hate Speech

Talk about mission creep. Established in the 1970s to stop discrimination, Canada's human rights commissions soon took to policing offensive speech.

In one notorious case, covered in reason's June 2009 issue, the Western Standard had to go through an expensive two-year process to defend its right to reprint the notorious Jyllands-Posten cartoons mocking Muhammad. The Standard eventually won that case, but not every defendant has been so lucky.

At least now there will be fewer defendants. In June the country repealed Section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act, which allowed the commissions to regulate "the communication of hate messages by telephone or on the Internet." It's a victory for free speech, but not a complete one: "Hate speech" is still a criminal offense in Canada, though it will not be as easy to bring charges now.

Comments


NEWSLETTERS

Get Reason In Your Inbox.

Thanks for submitting!

Join the

LIBERTARIAN PARTY

We are funded entirely by Americans who want to help give liberty a voice. By joining the Libertarian Party as a dues-paying member, you are investing in this critical work.

Thanks for submitting!

ADDRESS

1444 Duke St.

Alexandria, VA 22314-3403

PHONE

(800) ELECT-US

(800) 353-2887

EMAIL

bottom of page