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Centre for Free Expression in collaboration with PEN Canada and the Canadian Association of Journalists.

What are the outer limits to free speech? Oft cited is the example of yelling “fire” in a crowded theatre. University of Toronto psychology professor Jordan Peterson invoked just this image in a contribution to the Washington, D.C.-based paper, The Hill.

Many countries are stressing the importance of measures to counter radicalization to violence.  Unfortunately, we really don’t know, at this point, what measures are effective.  So far, the limited research and the experience of other countries have mostly served to show us what is not effective.

Chief Justice Strathy of the Ontario Court of Appeal has granted leave to intervene to a coalition of eight organizations, including the Centre for Free Expression, in the appeal of a court order requiring VICE Canada national security reporter Ben Makuch to hand over all notes and communications between him and a suspected ISIS fighter to the RCMP. “Journalists cannot do their jobs of informing the public on controversial issues if they are forced to hand over notes from their discussions with confidential sources,” said James L. Turk, Director of the Centre for Free Expression.

Opera houses, universities, public schools, civic libraries, and civic museums, all express and explain the societies and cultures from which they come. You might think their antiquity would protect such places from the ups and downs of the economy and the changeable opinions of politicians. And you would be wrong. If you look past the placid exteriors of the Royal Ontario Museum or the British Museum, Columbia University, l’Opéra de Paris, the University of Toronto, and the rest, there is a tale of continuous change and occasional disruption.

Debates about the regulation of different forms of speech – including hate speech, commercial advertising, election spending, and defamation, raise broader questions about the protection of free speech in contemporary public discourse.