{"id":3237,"date":"2019-08-31T04:54:57","date_gmt":"2019-08-31T08:54:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/?p=3237"},"modified":"2019-08-31T04:54:57","modified_gmt":"2019-08-31T08:54:57","slug":"jailing-people-for-hate-speech-is-wrong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/?p=3237","title":{"rendered":"\u00a0JAILING PEOPLE FOR HATE SPEECH IS WRONG"},"content":{"rendered":"

https:\/\/www.theglobeandmail.com\/canada\/toronto\/article-jailing-people-for-hate-speech-is-wrong\/<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0JAILING PEOPLE FOR HATE SPEECH IS WRONG<\/span><\/p>\n

by Marcus Gee<\/p>\n

This month a Toronto judge ordered two men to be deprived of their freedom
\nover words and pictures they published in a paper \u2013 and no one said boo.
\nNot the press, which mostly confined itself to reporting the bare facts of
\nthe case. Certainly not any of the political parties, even though their
\nexistence depends on the right to speak freely and sharply.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

James Sears and LeRoy St. Germaine were found guilty earlier this year of
\npromoting hatred. The judge said their local publication, Your Ward News,
\n\u201cconsistently dehumanized Jews and women.\u201d So, when it came time for
\nsentencing, he threw the book at them. Mr. Sears, the editor, is to serve
\na year in jail, though he is free now while he appeals. Mr. St. Germaine,
\nthe publisher, gets 12 months of house arrest. He says he will appeal,
\ntoo.<\/p>\n

None of the usual guardians of free speech seemed to find this even a
\nlittle troubling. Judging from the thunderous silence that greeted the
\nsentences, they consider it perfectly acceptable that this dubious pair
\nshould lose their liberty for what they put in their nasty little paper.
\nAfter all, who could feel sorry for people who published such vile things?<\/p>\n

But you don\u2019t have to sympathize with Mr. Sears and Mr. St. Germaine to be
\nworried about sending them away. Free speech is under attack all over,
\nfrom both the right and the left. The notion that fringe voices should be
\nsilenced rather than countered or simply ignored is gaining force. To see
\na Canadian court embrace that view is alarming. Except in the case of
\ndirect incitement to violence, democracies shouldn\u2019t jail people for
\nthings they write or say. That is a move from an autocrat\u2019s playbook.<\/p>\n

It is only too easy for governments to argue that those who oppose or
\ncriticize them are fomenting unrest or spreading hate. Right now in China,
\nauthorities are labelling Hong Kong\u2019s protesters as dangerous radicals who
\ndespise the motherland. When North America was in the grip of a Red Scare,
\nthose with left-wing views were considered subversive. If they said the
\ncapitalism system was corrupt and must be overthrown, they were
\nencouraging the populace to stage a violent insurrection. We look back at
\nthe suppression of the left then as a gross overreaction, even hysteria.<\/p>\n

In fraught times, the tendency to crack down on radicals, crackpots and
\ndissenters grows. With a bilious ranter in the White House and poisonous
\npopulism on the rise around the world, these are fraught times indeed. The
\nprosecutor in the Your Ward News case said that the Crown intends to
\nenforce the laws against promoting hate with renewed vigilance because \u201cin
\ntoday\u2019s current climate \u2026 it\u2019s become of greater concern.\u201d<\/p>\n

But using the criminal law to crack down on troublesome and even obnoxious
\nviews is the wrong response. It hands governments a cudgel they can easily
\nmisuse. It gives cranks and trolls the spotlight they crave. Mr. Sears and
\nMr. St. Germaine seem delighted by all the attention. Mr. St. Germaine
\nsaid his partner emerged from court with \u201cfresh handcuff marks still on
\nhis wrists in the same spots where Jesus was wounded when he was nailed to
\nthe cross.\u201d<\/p>\n

Worst of all, it threatens the free and unrestrained exchange of ideas
\nthat helps societies progress. The great advantage that democracies have
\nover other forms of governments is that they can work through conflicts by
\ndiscussion and argument instead of violence. A system where views are
\naired and tested is simply better at sorting out problems. That system is
\ntruly safe only when all views, even the most odious ones, are allowed to
\ncirculate.<\/p>\n

That doesn\u2019t mean we are helpless in the face of hate. One way to fight
\nthe haters is to argue back, denouncing their slurs and combatting their
\nfalsehoods. Another is to turn away. If you find Your Ward News
\ndespicable, consign it to the trash. Deny the trolls their martyrdom. Just
\ndon\u2019t chuck them in jail. Do that and we are all in trouble.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

https:\/\/www.theglobeandmail.com\/canada\/toronto\/article-jailing-people-for-hate-speech-is-wrong\/ \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0JAILING PEOPLE FOR HATE SPEECH IS WRONG by Marcus Gee This month a Toronto judge ordered two men to be deprived of their freedom over words and … Continue reading →<\/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":[545,835,358,590,355],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3237"}],"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=3237"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3237\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3238,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3237\/revisions\/3238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}