Wednesday, June 08, 2005

Free speech and hate crimes

The Prime Minister and MPs who supported bill C-250 in 2003 and early 2004, insisted that it was no big deal, and would not infringe on freedom of expression. They minimized the concerns of those who argued against it by calling them alarmist etc.

Here is the criminal code on Hate Propaganda

1. Subsection 318(4) of the Criminal Code is replaced by the following:
Definition of "identifiable group"

(4) In this section, "identifiable group" means any section of the public distinguished by colour, race, religion, ethnic origin or sexual orientation.

2. Paragraph 319(3)(b) (defences) of the Act is replaced by the following:

(b) if, in good faith, the person expressed or attempted to establish by an argument an opinion on a religious subject or an opinion based on a belief in a religious text;

What Bill Whatcott does is extreme, and personally I find it creepy. I think his tactics are a distraction from honest debate, but his opinion is based on a religious text -- why was he convicted.

I am not for the distribution of this kind of flyer because they tend to be taken for the views of all Christians who are against SSM and concerned about the homosexual agenda. All Liberals should not be painted with the scandal brush, but all Christians are usually painted with the 'extremist' brush.

That said, those who said that this amendment to the criminial code would not infringe on freedom of speech were misleading us. What a surprise.

canadianna

2 comments:

Les Mackenzie said...

I read all these great blogs and all I can come up with is smart ass comments? Am I too cynical?

I don't even know what the alleged 'hate' literature said but I distrust the media so much that I will give this guy the benefit of the doubt. Remember - in Liberal land the Bible is hate literature.

alsocanadian said...

I was just about to add a smart assed comment, but Les ruined it for me!