Free speech

[silverflight8]

I live in a country that's well known for its rights and freedoms. It's Canada, and our Charter is entrenched in our constitution. To change anything, you'd need the agreement of 2/3 of the provinces and the majority of the population to say yes. Needless to say, that would almost never happen. If it did, the person responsible could probably resolve all the conflicts in the world.

And luckily, entrenched in that Constitution, is the right to free speech. In fact, this right is in the very beginning of the charter, stating very clearly that every citizen of Canada has the right to the freedom of thought, belief, and opinion. 

I like this--after all, I have a blog. The thing is, there is a fine line between that right and hate speech.

Before listing the rights, the Charter also lists the limitations : "The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees the rights and freedoms set out in it subject only to such reasonable limits prescribed by law as can be demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society."

That means, to those of you who cry: "Hey, I have the freedom of speech! You can't muzzle me! I can be [racist/sexist/discriminatory/ect] as much as I please!" that unfortunately, you are not. There are limits. And those while those limits are fluid--"demonstrably justified"--there are limits. Free speech is not simply a way to lash out.

Thanks to Department of Justice for the quotes. The full charter is here: http://laws.justice.gc.ca/en/charter/1.html

edited to add reference.