With regard to today’s Supreme Court decision upholding Taylor and Canada’s anti-hate speech laws: Obviously, libertarians will hate the decision, but hopefully they weren’t disappointed. Did anyone really think the Court would strike down the censorship provisions in every human rights act across Canada? But I see a puzzle. To quote the decision, the term “hatred” contained [...]
Category Archives: Expression
Freedom of Religion should not be in our constitution
Posted by Hugh MacIntyre on November 24, 2011 8 comments
Federal Court Judge Michel Shore dismissed Christopher Bennett’s claim that, for him, marijuana is a holy sacrament and thus him smoking it is protected under the Charter as a freedom of religion. Judge Shore said that Mr. Bennett’s pot smoking is a “life style choice.” Yes it is a life style choice, but so are [...]
Occupy Toronto has no right to St. James Park
Posted by Hugh MacIntyre on November 16, 2011 7 comments
On Tuesday the City of Toronto issued eviction notices to the Occupiers at St. James Park, I am sure in response to my post on Monday. A group of the Occupiers went to a judge for an injunction claiming that the eviction would violate their charter rights. The judge put a stay on the enforcement [...]
Bill C-51: the Conservative government is in favour of censorship
Posted by Terrence Watson on May 5, 2011 5 comments
Why must you DO these things, Conservatives? 1. Bill C-36: a Conservative betrayal In the comments to this post, commenter Robert McClelland correctly highlights Bill C-36 as one of the lesser known pieces of bad Conservative legislation to come out of their minority government. C-36, the Consumer Product Safety Act, takes effect in June. It [...]
A twitter rebellion in Canada
Posted by Hugh MacIntyre on April 22, 2011 5 comments
Social media has proven itself a powerful tool to fight tyrants in Asia and Africa. Now here in Canada it may be used to defend free speech. According to this news article there is a movement on Twitter that would have people tweeting election results in violation of federal law. The law is this: Don’t [...]
The Human Right not to be offended
Posted by Hugh MacIntyre on April 21, 2011 5 comments
Comedian Guy Earle has lost his case and is being forced by the “Human Rights” Tribunal to give $22 000 for insulting someone at a comedy club. It is now a “human right” never to be offended. Well I am offended by this verdict. I am offended that this case would have been thrown out [...]
The great conservative smear of Al Jazeera
Posted by Mike Brock on March 18, 2011 1 comment
It happened during the Egypt uprising. I was looking for more information on the protests on the streets of Cairo and Alexandria. As a libertarian, the spectacle of people rising up against a repressive government is something that gets my attention with little effort. It also came a few weeks after the fire bombing of [...]
Comparing the world, in terms of freedom
Posted by Peter Jaworski on March 14, 2011 20 comments
I suggested we should put together a meta-index, and listed a bunch of possible indexes that already exist which we could use for our overall evaluation. There appear to be two such indexes already: The Free Existence meta-index, as well as the Institutional Quality Index (the actual report is in Spanish h/t Nico in the [...]
Canada is free, the U.S. is mostly free
Posted by Peter Jaworski on March 13, 2011 31 comments
UPDATE: There appears to be a reliable meta-index. The results, and more top-10 lists, are located here In my bleeding heart libertarians post, I made the claim that I’d like to, as an interim step, move towards a Scandinavian and Swiss-style state. It surprised me that more than one person responded by suggesting that those [...]
CCF: Mandatory bilingual sign law violates freedom of expression
Posted by Peter Jaworski on March 3, 2011 Comments Off
Here’s the press release from the Canadian Constitution Foundation: The Canadian Constitution Foundation (CCF) today announced that it has been granted permission by the Ontario Court of Appeal to make written and oral arguments in defence of freedom of expression against a restrictive Ontario Township of Russell signage language by-law. Bilingual small business owner Mr. [...]
You should have stayed at home
Posted by Mike Brock on February 26, 2011 22 comments
CBC’s The Fifth Estate gives what is, in my estimation, one of the most balanced reports on what happened during the G20 in Toronto that I have seen in the mainstream media. And you can watch the whole thing here: ShareFacebookStumbleUponDiggRedditEmail
Australian comedian Steve Hughes on the CHRC
Posted by Peter Jaworski on February 6, 2011 1 comment
Okay, so he doesn’t mention the Canadian Human Rights Commission by name, but what the CHRC does is just what this heavy metal-loving funny man rips into. Enjoy: I think Steve Hughes might be a libertarian. Take a look at the rest of this particular skit, from which the above is an excerpt. He talks [...]
CCF defending Jaworskis: Notice of Constitutional Question filed in Liberty Summer Seminar Case
Posted by Peter Jaworski on December 16, 2010 Comments Off
Here is the press release issued by the Canadian Constitution Foundation today: The Canadian Constitution Foundation (CCF) today announced that it is providing pro-bono legal counsel to Marta, Lech and Peter Jaworski, in their defence against charges in respect of an alleged violation of a zoning by-law of the municipality of Clarington in Ontario. The [...]
Julian Assange and WikiLeaks
Posted by Terrence Watson on December 7, 2010 4 comments
Think about that: given a slightly more intelligent and emotionally stable source [than Private Manning], we would have no idea how WikiLeaks managed to gain access to the thousands of documents the organization has only begun to release. And given a slightly less flamboyant, ego-driven spokesperson, we would have no idea who to blame for their release.
Legal round-up: Nudity, polygamy, and tax evasion
Posted by Peter Jaworski on November 20, 2010 Comments Off
In Ontario, a judge has ruled that there’s nothing indecent about a guy walking around naked in secluded places. Two off-duty police officers witnessed him [the 60-year-old naturist] walking naked in September 2009. The charge was dismissed because the man was not doing anything harmful – such as public masturbation, luring or flashing. “[Some members [...]
The Landowner: “Crackdown on Liberty Seminar”
Posted by Peter Jaworski on November 17, 2010 4 comments
The Landowner is the official magazine of the Ontario Landowners Association. About a month and a half ago, I wrote a story summarizing what has come to be called the “Clarington saga.” That saga is the story of this year’s Liberty Summer Seminar, and the decision by the Municipality of Clarington’s bylaw department to charge [...]
York vs. Ottawa shout-down: Can you spot the difference?
Posted by Peter Jaworski on November 17, 2010 3 comments
Here is video of students shouting in protest of a controversial speaker, grumpy that the school even permitted such a controversial speaker to come on campus in the first place (would they permit Hitler to come to campus? Geez, what an outrage!): And here is video of students shouting in protest of a controversial speaker, [...]
Bylaw cracks down on 91-year-old man who just wanted to build a house
Posted by Peter Jaworski on November 16, 2010 21 comments
“I thought this was a free country, that we had liberties and freedoms like we used to have, but I was sadly mistaken,” said Craig Morrison to a reporter for the Telegraph-Journal in New Brunswick. The story of Morrison, a 91-year-old man who built his own house overlooking the Bay of Fundy, is replete with [...]
Stand up for Freedom, the anti-CHRC movement grows
Posted by Peter Jaworski on November 12, 2010 9 comments
UPDATED below. Obviously, the Canadian Human Rights Commissions have got to go. They shouldn’t be reformed, they should be abolished. Their very existence offends against our fundamental freedoms and ordinary decency. It is a miserable institution and a national embarrassment. To take Ezra Levant’s colourful turn-of-phrase: Fire. Them. All. Agreed. There’s a new group in [...]