Mark Steyn Says Nuts to Canada’s Supreme Court

I’ve posted a number of times about the recent ruling of Canada’s Supreme Court.

Mark Steyn weighs in heavily today in a piece entitled “Death to Freedom.”

For half a decade, ever since the Canadian Islamic Congress attempted to criminalize my writing, I've found myself waging a grim campaign for freedom of speech in my native land. We've had some success along the way, seeing off the Islamic enforcers, and getting a disgraceful federal law first rendered unenforceable and then repealed by the House of Commons.

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Last month, the Canadian supreme court, at a stroke, undid all the good work of the last five years, reaffirmed the state's role in the thought-crime business, rejected truth as a defense, and took a narrow, generation-old ruling on "hate speech" and carelessly broadened it. And they did it unanimously.

Full article here…

h/t Five Feet of Fury

Americans Weigh in on Canada's Supreme Court Decision

In a piece entitled "Canadian Supreme Court Kills Last Hope for Free Speech" Bruce Bawer of FrontPageMag explains that either speech is free or it isn’t.
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The bottom line here is that the Canadian Supreme Court, in the name of justice, has struck a blow against freedom and promulgated a pack of lies – among them, first, the lie that free speech can and should be “balanced” against other worthy social objectives; second, the lie that it is possible for government officials to make “objective” determinations as to the possible consequences of a given speech act and as to the exact location of the boundary between hate and lesser emotions; and, third, the lie that “hate speech,” in some way, silences its targets. No, “hate speech” doesn’t silence – the prosecution of “hate speech” does. Yes, the Court’s decision may well be used to suppress the vigorous expression of religious people’s opinions – or, more specifically, the opinions of people who agree with Bill Whatcott. But does anyone honestly think that, say, Canadian imams who preach core Islamic tenets – such as the obligation to punish gays, apostates, and adulteresses with death – are henceforth in serious peril of prosecution?

Read more here.

Supreme Court of Canada Decision Sets Back Free Speech

Yesterday’s decision really bodes badly for Canadian free speech and particularly the freedom of Christians to express what they believe to be divinely ordained truth, i.e. the Bible, traditional Christian teaching etc.

From LifeSiteNews…

Canada’s top court has released an unanimous decision today that critics say has struck a monumental blow against freedom of speech, opinion, and religion across the country. The court ordered the defendant, a Catholic pro-family activist with a reputation for intense activism, not only to pay a fine, but also to pay court costs which could amount to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

From Jonathan Kay at National Post…

The complication is that millions of Canadians do see homosexual behaviour in exactly those fire-and-brimstone terms, even if the rest of us (myself included) do not. They include not only many religious Christians such as Mr. Whatcott, but also many religious Muslims and Jews. And there is no sugar-coating the fact that — despite its claim to be “balancing” the rights of all concerned — the Court effectively has privileged the protection of gay Canadians over the right of religious Christians to promote what they view as the established, Biblical take on homosexuality.

Moreover, the Court wrongly chose to wipe away any distinction between hating acts associated with homosexuality, and hating homosexuals as people. That distinction may be meaningless for most Canadians. But it is an important distinction in Christian doctrine. Whatcott himself specifically invites gays to “repent” their ways and attain salvation — which suggests, crucially, that he does not regard any person as permanently stained by sin.

Ezra Levant is frustrated with this ruling and points out the stupidity and confusion of the Court: