Censorship

Nominations for the PEN Canada/Ken Filkow Prize have just opened. This $1,000 annual prize celebrates champions of free expression in Canada. The deadline for nominations is August 8, 2017. Nominees may be anyone ­– authors, journalists, public servants, scientists, professors, business people, editors, publishers, organizations and concerned citizens – whose work has advanced freedom of expression in Canada.

We should applaud the public outcry that recently helped to restore Saskatchewan library funding. This situation served as an important signal work needs to be done to protect libraries and the people who work in them, who are often in difficult political situations, including over the freedom of expression.

One gets the sense that the Supreme Court of Canada does not have a good feel for free speech questions. It took some time, for instance, for a majority of the Court to acknowledge that legal constraints might ‘chill’ free speech. The Court confidently proclaimed, on more than one occasion, that civil and criminal legal prohibitions should not be expected to deter speakers.

In a welcome move, the Federal Government has responded immediately to today’s expert panel recommendation to end the political activity audits of charities begun under the Harper government.

In hate speech regulation a distinction is generally made between an attack on a (religious) group, which if sufficiently extreme may amount to hate speech, and an attack on the group’s beliefs, which must be permitted, even when it is harsh and intemperate. A ban on hate speech should apply only to assertions that the members of the group are less worthy or less human than others or that they necessarily share certain undesirable traits – that they are by nature dangerous and should be treated accordingly. Attacks on belief are a different matter.