…So speech in Canada is still free, eh? Nuh-uh. Consider. It took a whack of lawyers for Maclean’s to get Steyn off the hook. The tribunal held a week-long hearing in June, then issued a 37-page decision that deconstructs every tittle (sic) and jot.

Why would any sane publisher invite that kind of scrutiny?

Remind me not to write about Muslims ... or for that matter, utter “any statement, publication, notice, sign, symbol, emblem or other representation that ... is likely to expose a person or a group or class of persons to hatred or contempt.”

The authors of the relevant section of the code may have been targetting neo-Nazis, not Mark Steyn, who is only neo-conservative. But like most other well-meaning attempts to regulate freedom of expression, it serves to lower the temperature around newsrooms, and media offenders risk severe frostbite if we dare to take on anything more controversial than the price of tea in China. On second thought ... tea, China, maybe not…