Provincial hate speech laws are next
The National Post published an editorial on July 3rd, titled “Taking the free speech campaign to the provinces”. They note that, now that the Federal hate speech provision has been repealed, those provinces with hate speech provisions should be the next to reform.
Theoretically this should be possible.
The three provinces with hate speech provisions are BC, Alberta and Saskatchewan. (The NorthWest Territories also has a hate speech provision.) Alberta has a strong libertarian and freedom-loving history and constituency and is home to two right of centre parties that are on record as being at least interested in reforming their Human Rights Act. Saskatchewan currently has a very popular Conservative government, so it should be possible to change that law too. If successful, that would effectively leave BC as the sole province with a hate speech provision, meaning those citizens would have a very limited freedom of expression when compared to all other Canadians. How long would that last? So, indeed, let’s take the campaign to the provinces. Stand up for freedom, Canada!
