{"id":2753,"date":"2019-04-08T03:19:01","date_gmt":"2019-04-08T07:19:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/?p=2753"},"modified":"2019-04-08T03:19:01","modified_gmt":"2019-04-08T07:19:01","slug":"taube-why-the-ruling-against-your-ward-news-hurts-free-speech-in-canada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/?p=2753","title":{"rendered":"Taube: Why the ruling against Your Ward News hurts free speech in Canada"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote>\n<div id=\"m_8649089540037055572article\" class=\"m_8649089540037055572georgia m_8649089540037055572exported\" role=\"article\">\n<div class=\"m_8649089540037055572page\">\n<h1 class=\"m_8649089540037055572title\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">Taube: Why the ruling against Your Ward News hurts free speech in Canada<\/span><\/h1>\n<div class=\"m_8649089540037055572singleline m_8649089540037055572metadata\"><time class=\"m_8649089540037055572date\" datetime=\"2019-02-07T00:12:36+00:00\">February 7, 2019<\/time><\/div>\n<div>\n<figure><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cjnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/your-ward-news.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/www.cjnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/your-ward-news.jpg&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1554791919867000&amp;usg=AFQjCNECHt-7T2AZQeT3U7pueBl6Q9OPPw\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"CToWUd\" title=\"your-ward-news\" src=\"https:\/\/ci4.googleusercontent.com\/proxy\/8a7NPFr23sIgiw0pgniJhNdI9ZmOgCRzHjkB6B2ZDCsjyNw5Zmo2qn8GMp5705C-g9X8C2ItEa99la5G_VnoBkmA3JLaT0lEQrRCWDp1PwNflTUO-dsOVmD8a121wz8=s0-d-e1-ft#https:\/\/www.cjnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/your-ward-news-640x480.jpg\" alt=\"Your Ward News winter 2017\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" \/><\/a><figcaption>The cover of Your Ward News&#8217; winter 2017 edition.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>Freedom of speech has always been on shaky ground in Canada. While many people claim to support this important right, they often smother it with stringent conditions and restrictions that makes speech anything but free.<\/p>\n<p>In fact, a recent Ontario court ruling produced one of the most damaging blows to free speech ever seen in this country.<\/p>\n<p>On Jan. 24, Judge Richard Blouin ruled that James Sears and Leroy St. Germaine \u2013 the editor-in-chief and publisher, respectively, of the controversial free newspaper\u00a0<em>Your Ward News<\/em>\u00a0<em>(YWN) \u2013<\/em>\u00a0were guilty of promoting hatred against Jews and women. Although the two men claimed their publication was nothing more than a satirical endeavour, the judge disagreed. \u201c<em>YWN<\/em>\u00a0repeatedly and consistently dehumanized Jews and women,\u201d Bouin argued, and the paper\u2019s proprietors \u201cwere fully aware of the unrelenting promotion of hate.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The people who had been pushing for Sears and St. Germaine to be prosecuted, which included Liberal strategists Warren and Lisa Kinsella and Canada Anti-Hate Network chair Bernie Farber, were understandably elated. Farber, in fact, said this was the \u201ckind of verdict that Canadians are going to rejoice in.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>No, they won\u2019t \u2013 and they shouldn\u2019t.<\/p>\n<p>To be clear, I agree that\u00a0<em>Your Ward News<\/em>\u00a0is an awful publication. I\u2019ve read it twice and I found the things written about the Kinsellas and others offensive at best.<\/p>\n<p>My main concern, however, is the serious blow to free speech in Canada caused by using the Criminal Code to prosecute real or perceived hate speech.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>As I\u2019ve written before, free speech is the defence of ideas that are either objective or objectionable. We must be willing to support views that appear right to us, and tolerate views that seem wrong.\u00a0This doesn\u2019t mean we\u2019re required to agree with different points of view, but we must always defend a person\u2019s right to make their views heard in a non-violent manner.<\/p>\n<p>Hate speech has always followed the same principle, long before the removal of Sec. 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act \u2013 which, in my view, was something to cheer about if you truly support free speech.<\/p>\n<p>People living in a liberal democracy are free to hate, whether we like it or not. The laws of our land cannot, should not and must not forbid any individual or group from feeling differently than, or even loathing, another individual or group.<\/p>\n<p>This doesn\u2019t mean we have to agree with other people\u2019s views. We have every right to object to them, but we have to accept that they have the right to speak their minds.<\/p>\n<p>Hence, people are allowed to hold the most vile and repulsive beliefs about any religious, racial or gender group in Canada and beyond. And yes, this includes Jews and women.<\/p>\n<p>The one notable exception is when hate speech evolves from offensive words and personal beliefs, to the act of physical violence. It\u2019s one thing to hate a person or group, but quite another to wish them bodily harm.<\/p>\n<p>This fine line played a role in the first case against Sears and St. Germaine in December. It was based on a passage in the Summer 2017 issue of\u00a0<em>YWN<\/em>, which read, in part, \u201cthere was the chance that some hothead who cares deeply about me and my family would lose it and do something illegal, like bludgeon the Kinsella\u2019s to death.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Judge Dan Moore ruled against the Kinsellas because the \u201cplain and ordinary meaning of the words\u201d didn\u2019t constitute a death threat. With respect to the theory of reasonable doubt, Moore correctly said that, \u201cHaving considered all of the evidence I am unable to find that the threat to kill interpretation \u2026 is even the most likely interpretation, let alone the only reasonable interpretation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Hence, the recent court case against Sears and St. Germaine proved a salient point: critiques of hate speech are just as wrong-headed as critiques of free speech. This doesn\u2019t a constitute victory, ladies and gentlemen. Rather, it\u2019s an enormous loss to our personal rights and freedoms.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Taube: Why the ruling against Your Ward News hurts free speech in Canada February 7, 2019 The cover of Your Ward News&#8217; winter 2017 edition. Freedom of speech has always been on shaky ground in Canada. While many people claim &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/?p=2753\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[762,1584,545,358,1583,531,355],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2753"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2753"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2753\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2754,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2753\/revisions\/2754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}