CFE Blog

The recent firing of Katherine Grzejszczak, a paramedic working for the Regional Municipality of York (north of Toronto), for her Facebook comment condemning Israel’s bombing of Iran, killing children at food aid depots, and the murdering of journalists, municipal workers, and healthcare workers highlights a serious problem involving workers’ rights to freedom of expression.

17th Century puritanism has come back to life in the Alberta Government. Last week, its Minister of Education, Demetrios Nicolaides signed a Ministerial Order that is jaw-dropping. Concerned that some Alberta school libraries have books that are too sexually explicit, he decided to solve the problem.

Municipalities across Ontario are being pressured by lobby groups to pass so-called “bubble zone” bylaws to prevent legal protests they do not like. Such bylaws do two things. First, they prohibit already illegal behaviour like violence, threats of violence, preventing access to buildings, and harassment on public property (streets, sidewalks, parks) within a certain distance of designated infrastructure, such as religious centres, school buildings, hospitals, and childcare facilities. Second, they prohibit legal free expression on public property within the restricted zone. 

On Monday, May 26th, 2025, Alberta Minister of Education Demetrios Nicolaides announced that the government was bringing in new rules to ensure only "age-appropriate" books are available in school libraries in the province.

I recently returned from a visit to Mexico, staying for a few days near the Zocalo, the historic centre of Mexico City. Seeing this part of the city was a significant challenge. The great square that is the Zocalo, as well as most of the streets feeding into it, were blocked by hundreds of tents. The tents were strung up between buildings and covered by large tarpaulins, protecting the thousands of people in the tents from the intense heat and the occasional rain. After we left, the protesters marched on the airport, finally receiving international media coverage. Who are these people?

Supporters of the recently enacted bubble zone by-law in Toronto argue that the law is necessary to protect individuals, who are entering and leaving places such as synagogues and religious schools, from harassment and intimidation by protestors. While very little was said in these debates about the protection of “captive audiences” from speech they find objectionable, this concern is, I think, implicit in the claim that the speech of protestors, and more particularly pro-Palestinian protestors, is harmful.