Rindall admitted to writing the posts in a Feb. 13 statement to police. He told police he was entitled to “free speech” and should be allowed to post whatever he wants, adding he didn’t think laws against this type of hate speech should exist, the statement of facts said.
This is what a steady diet of Fox News and the like will bring. Hatred, plus not knowing the difference between American laws and Canadian laws. I really appreciate that hate speech is a criminal offence in Canada.
Another Canadian laid low by american culture.
Freedom of speech ≠ freedom of consequences
Sure but Canada is not America and we have laws against hate speech.
Correct. That’s the consequences part.
I think the reason they corrected you is that usually when that phrase is used, it is referring to US “freedom of speech” where although the law protects you from being arrested or charged for your speech, you can still be ousted from a community or fired (consequences)
However, in Canada, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms permits the government to enforce “reasonable” limited censoring of speech. So, in Canada, we do not have free speech in the same way because we can get arrested for hate speech.
So there is a distinction here. I’m happy to clarify if any of my language was confusing, let me know if this explanation makes sense.
Edit: also in Canada it is not called “freedom of speech”, it is called “freedom of expression”
Yeah, I’m aware of all of this, haha. Appreciate it for anybody reading though.
Fair enough! Just making sure :)
