...born with the gift of laughter and a sense that the world was mad

Huh?: I’m sure the eminent counsel for the Ceej thought this was a brilliant analogy at the time—comparing the possible elimination of Section 13 to the market crash. From the Globe and Mail:

….As the Supreme Court of Canada has observed in discussing Section 13, the danger of hate propaganda is in its dehumanizing and demonizing character and in the message that its objects are worthless and deserve any anger or worse that may be directed their way. 

The criminal law is a blunt tool to deal with this sort of hate speech. It is focused on the perpetrator and sets appropriately high thresholds, including proof of intent, before imposing punishment. Meanwhile, press councils and ISP "hate speech advisory committees" help promote responsibility in the media, but don't tackle the problem head-on.

What lies in between is a focus on the hateful messages themselves and on society's interest in protecting its members, including vulnerable communities, from their consequences. That's what Section 13 is designed to do. Its focus is not, as is often mistakenly assumed, on the impossible project of cleansing the Internet of hate. But, in removing what it can, it is directed squarely at denouncing the hate and denying it the legitimacy of status as an "opinion" or "point of view."

It is both unrealistic and counterproductive to look to the "marketplace of ideas" as an alternative to regulation in counteracting hate speech. History shows that when it comes to hate propaganda, the marketplace of ideas is as susceptible to market failure as an unregulated market in financial derivatives.

The Supreme Court of Canada was spot on when it affirmed both the reasonableness and the constitutionality of Section 13 in the fight against the dangers of hate speech. So why repeal it, as Prof. Moon suggests?

Why repeal it? Because censoring speech is something they do in places that are Islamist and fascist and Islamofascist. Because it is arrogance of the first order to assume that regular people can’t go to market on their own—without hack bureaucrats to direct them—and decide which ideas they care to “buy”. Because history has shown what can happen when speech is regulated by idiot “elites”—misery, despair and death on a massive scale (how now Mao, Stalin et al?).

That’s why.

Posted by: scaramouche at 20:15 | link | comments

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