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Forums - General Discussion - Hate speech or free speech? What much of West bans is protected in U.S.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia: A couple of years ago, a Canadian magazine published an article arguing that the rise of Islam threatened Western values. The article's tone was mocking and biting, but it said nothing that conservative magazines and blogs in the United States did not say every day without fear of legal reprisal.

Things are different here. The magazine is on trial.

Under Canadian law, there is a serious argument that the article contained hate speech and that its publisher, Maclean's magazine, the nation's leading newsweekly, should be forbidden from saying similar things, forced to publish a rebuttal and made to compensate Muslims for injuring their "dignity, feelings and self respect."

The British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal, which held five days of hearings on those questions in Vancouver last week, will soon rule on whether Maclean's violated a provincial hate speech law by stirring up animosity toward Muslims.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/06/11/america/hate.php

A very interesting read...

 



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I don't think it was intended this way but 'free speech rights' and 'gun ownership rights' tend to cancel each other out as revolution starters in the USA because if you piss of enough people, proponents of the pen and sword go to battle fiercely.



People are difficult to govern because they have too much knowledge.

When there are more laws, there are more criminals.

- Lao Tzu

GO MACLEAN'S!



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I haven't the faintest doubt in my mind that the 1st Amendment is the correct way to handle free speech.

The problem has always been that the more things you declare off limits, the more the line is blurred and the more you open the flood gates for more things to be added to that list. If its illegal to make a rude comment about a Muslim then you would follow that rude comments about School Teachers aren't allowed as well..after all they are nothing more than groups of people with a single commonality but otherwise full of variation. Soon you can't talk about other sports teams negatively, then you can't talk about the country and the government in a bad light. And I think it becomes clear where it goes from there...

Perhaps the scariest aspect of this is that it really is the first stage of thought control. By defining in law what can and cannot be said you decide what is and is not heard. Ideas that are not heard for an entire generation are ideas no longer.

You can sell that in a pretty package of justification by telling people that it was hate speech and we are better for it, but at the end of the day you've still mandated the thoughts of individuals. Something I consider to be a far greater atrocity than even the most vitriolic hate speech.



To Each Man, Responsibility

It might just be the American school system talking here, but I've always been fond of "Voltaire's" "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."



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Thanks for the link. Interesting read. For a long time now, I haven't understood the Western world's acceptance of governed speech.




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yeah, sorry, US way on this definitely the best way. Freedom of Speech should be a basic human right. That is the only way to ensure freedom of information and limiting speech is one step closer to oppression.



One of the reasons I love the U.S. is the free speech.
I grew up in a country that restricted free speech.
I've heard that Canada's Law is different.
I can't find the source but I remember from couple of years ago that a preacher in Canada was on trial because he was handing out leaflets about homosexuality. (Don't remember the contents of the leaflet)
Correct me if I'm wrong on this.
BTW - I wouldn't agree with the preacher but don't agree with him going on trial either.



It always seemed backwords to me to block free speech.

It's like just stopping a persistant fever. You are treating the symptom but not the cause. With the symptoms blocked your ignoring the root problem. Without diagnosis on the root problem things are just going to get worse until they explode.



Always knew the Canadians were kinda backwards...... wtf is no free speech in Canada? Kinda sad.



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