Aemma

What is my view on Hate Speech Laws? I ask myself this question given that I actively participate in a free-speech forum touching on all kinds of issues from a life well lived and yet I do live in a country with such laws. I feel a need to at least work through some of this antitheticalness in my being.

I readily admit to wavering lately on the issue of the appropriateness of Hate Speech Laws inasmuch as I do recognise the slippery slope of censorship: Today I cannot say something idiotically ignorant such as "I think Jews have ruined the world" (which I don't believe by the way but am [I]solely[/I] using as a [I]crass[/I] and [I]exaggerated[/I] example). Tomorrow I will perhaps be much less permitted to say "I disagree with my country's immigration policies; close our borders to all and sundry--no exceptions!" (which is as un-Canadian as one can get I suppose). I can see where limiting the freedom of speech can be seen as a type of para-fascism in and of itself, leading to nothing better than some horrors as described by Orwell in his [I]1984[/I] (the Ministry of Truth and everything Newspeak come to mind). Yet my country has been built on values of respect for others and a communal spirit which is inclusive as opposed to exclusive. If anything, I think that it can be argued that Trudeau's push towards a Just Society reinforced this notion of communalism which, coupled with today's politically-correct environment, only seeks to feed a set loop of very well entrenched PC rhetoric.

I am deeply Canadian. And my Canadianness if you will is not something I take lightly. Yet there's this unease sitting deep in my gut which seems to have the effect of questioning what I thought was one of my truths as a Canadian. In the end I don't wish for a Ministry of Truth to exist in my country yet I also don't wish to lose that sense of communal responsibility and respect towards others as well as self.

I guess I'm at some kind of crossroads.

We'll see where I turn up....