Canuck free speech rules: Shut the f**k up! Or else!

Mark Milke reviews the state of free speech in Canada:

... bizarre reality about Canada's new national sport -- open season on free expression —

Under "human rights" law:

... the Alberta Human Rights and Citizenship Commission recently ordered Red Deer's Rev. Stephen Boissoin to forever cease saying anything "disparaging" about gay folk.

... in British Columbia, the local Star Chamber is "investigating" whether Mark Steyn's book, America Alone, constitutes hate speech against Muslims.

If you're a Muslim in Alberta, think homosexuality is a sin and say so publicly in a mosque, you could face Boissoin's fate.

Or suppose Alberta complainant Darren Lund (who got Boissoin into trouble) steps into B.C. and says something untoward about Muslims and their attitudes on homosexuality. Then Islamic complainants in Alberta might file a complaint in B.C. and have Lund found guilty of hate speech there.

See how much fun restrictions on expression can be once the whack-a-thought police get going? It's an endless merry-go-round.

All this inspires an adaptation of a folk diddy from the ‘50s:

The whole world is festering with unhappy news.
The black hate the white, the left hates the right and Muslims hate Jews.
South Africans hate the Dutch and I don't like anybody very much!

Sing to the tune of "The Merry Minuet" (thanks and apologies to The Kingston Trio)


Then, of course, there’s political speech:

Three provincial legislatures have either passed or plan to pass bills to restrict political speech. The first was in British Columbia.

Manitoba's NDP government will soon tighten existing legislation.

Meanwhile, Alberta's government has signalled it, too, will restrict "third parties" during elections.

So where are the courts in all of this folly? ... a 2004 Supreme Court of Canada .... majority opinion meant that gag laws found constitutional protection.

It's enough to make a grown man cry!

[Thanks to Blazing Cat Fur]