Can you imagine if, instead of our beloved First Amendment protection of free speech, we had mom chiding us, “Don’t say that; it’s not nice” as state policy? Well, that’s more or less the case in Canada, apparently. As I write this and read in The Washington Post that “two female suicide bombers killed at least 38 people on packed Moscow subway trains during rush hour on Monday, stirring fears of a broader campaign in Russia’s heartland by Islamists from the North Caucasus,” I can’t help but recall the hyperventilation from liberals last week over Ann Coulter’s scheduled speaking engagement in Ottawa.
Before Coulter even set foot in the country, the University of Ottawa’s representative sent her a letter stating, “Canadian law puts reasonable limits on freedom of expression. For example, promoting hatred against identifiable groups would not only be considered in appropriate, but could, in fact, lead to criminal charges.”
He wasn’t kidding.
Under Canadian law, “Section 319(2) defines the additional offense of communicating statements, other than in private conversation, that willfully promote hatred against an identifiable group.”
It’s no slap on the wrist, either. Bob Unruh at WorldNet Daily reports, “A Canadian administrative judge’s demand for a $5,000 penalty and a written apology from a man who criticized homosexuality in a letter to his local newspaper has been overturned on appeal, but experts on such ‘hate speech’ disputes say the case is not a complete victory for free speech.”
The stupidity of hate crime laws and of what appeared to be a mob of pot-addled zombies chanting in protest of Ann Coulter’s speech aside, this particular case speaks volumes to the left’s typically selective regard for freedom of speech. Some no-talent hack comes up with a crucifix dipped in urine and liberals call for federal funding for it. Ann Coulter makes a joke that Muslim would-be airline passengers “take a camel,” and you have liberals calling for her head.
Just as an example, is it hate speech when Mike Malloy snarls, “You rat bastards are going to cause another Murrah federal building explosion. Maybe at that point Beck will do the honorable thing and blow his brains out. Maybe at that point, Limbaugh will do the honorable thing and just gobble up enough Viagra that he becomes absolutely rigid and keels over dead. Maybe then O’Reilly will just drink a vat of that poison he spews out on America every night and choke to death.”?
Do you hear conservatives shrilling for Mike Malloy’s show to be cancelled, or for him to be punished for his moronic views? Do you see conservatives protesting loudly and obnoxiously every time Keith Olbermann says something stupid? The answer is no, simply because if they did, it would have to be a full-time occupation and conservatives tend to work and contribute to society a bit more than empty-headed leftist teenagers — or people in their 20s with the mentality of a spoiled teenager.
Short of advocating the violent overthrow of the government, yelling “FIRE!” in a crowded theater or exposing children to pornography, people should be able to say whatever they want, whether it sits comfortably with liberals or not. College campuses, especially, should feature speakers from liberal and conservative backgrounds, in order to foster the “diversity” that liberals are always crowing about. It’s just that when conservatives talk about diversity, we mean mentally, without regard to skin color and the like, whereas liberals just want a multi-ethnic panoply of leftists.
As Tyler Dosaj of UCLA’s Daily Bruin writes, on Ann Coulter’s upcoming speech there, “Contrary opinions, especially when they espouse the idea that Muslim countries should be invaded and made to bow before Jesus, are part of a complete political discourse breakfast. A volatile right-wing polemicist will keep us from becoming too comfortable and too sedate in the liberal bubble that is, sans OC, Southern California.”
We should be able to have a speaker who advocates more intensive screening of Muslim passengers on airlines right alongside one who feels that if we just bend over far enough for them — they’ll learn to love us and respect our cultural differences and we can weave baskets together. Canadians who aren’t completely brainwashed by liberal groupthink should unite and demand that a guarantee of free speech be drafted and codified as fundamental to Canadian law, and that asinine “hate speech” laws be eradicated.
Samuel Berkowitz is a columnist for the official news publication of Florida State University, the FSView & Florida Flambeau.