Letters to the Editor

• The Noxious Fruitd of Hate Speech Laws

  [Read the article: The Noxious Fruits of Hate Speech laws]
  [Read more letters about this article: Here]

  Like it or no and I support them as do the vast majority of Canadians, hate protection legislation is a necessary part of this multicultural nation which contrary to many American assumptions is a very different society founded on public and hopefully personal respect and equal treatment of all race, religion AND gender orientation. Because our population has 30% of its population born outside of Canada we try to respect every person's origin, language and culture and spend money to maintain language and culture of these groups as well as identify even during the census various ethnicities to be certain that our country reflects its United Nations nature Our view of our many internal cultures is markedly different from the melting pot of your United States. Incidentally women AND men are also protected from the promulgation of hate also...

  Levant is a kook and his laughable and I think now defunct newspaper was never a serious competition to a real paper but that is besides the point. Intention IS a meaningful aspect of publication...just think back to pre war Germany and der Sturmer. Surely the vitriol published in that benighted Nazi nation had intention? I understand that Levant in fact published the cartoons mostly because other papers did not as editors make decisions based upon a certain cowardly principle of selling lots of papers and not annoying people more than a little. No one was afraid to do so but rather, the cartoons were available to most on line and were not only poor but also insulting to an identifiable group. They could easily have published them contextually as did the CBC TV ( our government television)..like I said..it is about intention for otherwise there would be no way to learn from such excesses. Do not for one minute mix European legislation and issues with that of Canada. They are not at all the same as there certainly there is not a sense of justice but rather of political fear. We have so many nations and cultures represented here that it is impossible in most areas for one cultural group to force political change or restriction. We have to work all together, rather on common grounds.

  I would not wish to open a newspaper and see an insulting or defaming cartoon or article about gays or Jews or Roma or italian Canadians for that matter. There are those whose modus operandi is to exhort and to rabble rouse... One sees it on US networks regularly and this is not acceptable on this side of the border. We have great relations between our many minorities and are welcoming to all who come here to live and prosper. It is not legal to espouse hatred against any identifiable group be it s gay person or an Islamic group or Sikh or whatever. If you want to consider it less freedom than in America, go for it. We on the other hand call it being tolerant, open handed and fair to the group. This great nation of Canada is based not on the preeminence of the individual, like it or not, but on the preeminence of our social contract which protects us all from the cancer of intolerance and guarantees us our medical system, freedom of belief and protection of sexual orientation ( including gay marriage, by the way) as well as protection from the loss of privacy which is clearly a different direction from your nation. Canada was rated as in the top several nations in terms of privacy and personal rights, standard of education and opportunities.The US was near the bottom in contrat along with Great Britain so we do not belong lumped into some camp out of ignorance. We do not have a Guantanamo, do not condemn our non white population to low paid jobs and missed opportunities and do not allow the KKK to spread its filth on the air or in print. I care little that you do not approve as all political parties supported the legislation against the promulgation of hate. Alberta is in fact the most conservative and right wing of all the provinces in Canada and even here, this law was supported. Mark Steyn is a well known journalist who regularly publishes in our major news magazine, McLeans which is the equivalent to Time for us. I think that any complaint regarding the article about the future of islam will be judiciously and fairly considered. I fully expect the complaint to be thrown out as merely thin skinned a response to questions raised as any good journalism should do.

  In essence Libertarianism is not a force in Canada, responsibility to the society and the compact between people and the government for what we call Good and Responsible government, laws and behavour is the general approach taken. Tough break that Mr. Steyn's book got your knickers in a knot. I did not read it but it was selling quite well on this side of the border.

  Permalink Sunday, January 13, 2008 09:09 PM