Freedom of Expression & Its Limits

In Parliament, Senator Julie Miville-Dechêne has introduced Bill S-210 to restrict young people’s access to sexually explicit images on the internet. The bill’s short title: Protecting Young Persons from Exposure to Pornography Act. The first reading of Bill S-210 occurred in the Senate on November 24, 2021. THE BILL Read the text of the bill: https://www.parl.ca/DocumentViewer/en/44-1/bill/S-210/first-reading THE BILL’S STATUS 

On January 13, 2022, the Supreme Court surprised many observers by agreeing to hear the appeal in Neufeld v Hansman, a relatively obscure anti-SLAPP case from British Columbia.  

A bill to restrict young people’s online access to sexually explicit material has been re-introduced by Senator Julie Miville-Dechêne. The so-called Protecting Young Persons from Exposure to Pornography Act, would make it “an offence for organizations to make sexually explicit material available to young persons on the Internet” and would empower a designated enforcement authority to take steps to prevent such access. 

The ‘Freedom Convoy’ that rolled into Ottawa on 22 January 2022 to occupy Canada’s capital was organized at least in part by a group called ‘United We Roll’, whose former activities include opposing the federal carbon tax and defending the construction of new oil and gas pipelines, the Convoy was originally operating according to the terms set out in a ‘Memorandum of Understanding’ releas

Late in 2021, the Supreme Court of Canada rendered two of its most consequential Charter decisions on freedom of expression in recent years: City of Toronto v. Ontario and Ward v. Quebec. That endpoint in 2021 is the starting point of a 5-part series on s.2(b) of the Charter and its passage from 1982 to the present. The series begins with City of Toronto and Ward, two decisions dividing the Court 5-4 and pointing in opposite directions that raise perplexing questions about expressive freedom – and the Court itself. Of particular concern is the bloc mentality of these decisions and how it undermined principled decision making on important s.2(b) issues.

Teaching is a very difficult job. It always has been and always will be. How can you care for learners who have so many varied needs and abilities and also keep everyone in the classroom safe and healthy? Well, you can’t do it alone. But now? In the midst of a pandemic when we are all concerned about our own health as well as the health of the vulnerable people in our families and communities, teachers are on their own.