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Currently in Canada we are facing limits on our free speech due the Canadian Human Rights Commision and its provincial counterparts. These arms length goverment agencies prosecute persons based on complaints, on the public dime, and have (until recently) a 100% conviction rate under their hate crime provisions. They have (or are) prosecuting a diverse array of persons, such as white supremicists, publishers of right wing magazines, and Canada's long running popular news magazine Macleans. They have freely used tactics such as entrapment, allowed employees to submit complaints (one employee accounts for nearly 50% of all hate crime complaints), and gathered evidence without regards to warrants and privacy laws.
These events indicate to me that our choice should always be towards more free speech, not less. While I support reasonable limits on free speech, I do not support giving the government tools to prosecute based on a persons thoughts. Besides, it is better to having these people sharing their speech, such that we might defeat it in the realm of public debate, than running wild as whispers in the dark of our minds.
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Where there is doubt there is freedom.
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