Git Off Our Lawn, Eh?

[tealin]

In lieu of actual content:

Canada Denies Entry to Funeral Picketers

I am actually getting to like this government.

Comments

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

It's not the Human Rights Commission shutting them up, it's the government of a sovereign country refusing them passage across the border to cause trouble at a young man's funeral. They can shout what they like from the other side of the dotted line.

[noodledaddy.livejournal.com]

I know it is not the HRC shutting them up. I was referring to the concept of free speech in Canada vs. the US. In Canada if you say something factually accurate you can be taken before the HRC for a hate crime of sorts (see Mark Steyn and the National Post/McLeans).

Free Speech is also putting up with the speech of someone you dislike/disagree with (nutjobs from Kansas).

Butting in...

[(Anonymous)]

...And sorry about that, but I just felt like putting my two cents on this - the freedom of speech thing. I'm all for that (and I'm also aware that I'm making people cringe in anticipation waiting for the "but") but (see? you were right!) it's a double-edged concept.

Freedom of speech should perhaps be absolute and complete - but it would also mean that anyone can call you anything with or without reason or motive, including insulting you on basis of religion, ethnicity, origin, beliefs, etc. I'm not sure what the legislation in the United States is in regard to that, but I'm pretty sure that if some editorialist insulted (for instance) Barack Obama in their newspaper and called him a nigger (sorry about the 'n' word) he would be (I hope) perfectly within his right to sue this person.

I don't know who Pat Martin is (being French and all that) but he has a remarkably clear explanation of freedom, "Your freedom to swing your arm in the air ends when it touches the end of my nose". It applies to freedom of speech as well. In France there's a law against public slander or libel: basically, it's an offence to "flame" someone publicly (in writing). You can say or publish anything you want, as long as it's not hurtful to a person or a group (religious, ethnic, etc.) What Pastor Phelps was doing outside the church in the Moore video would get him arrested in France for "incitement to hatred" towards homosexuals.

Does anyone know whether the anti-sodomy law is enforced in all of the 20 concerned states? Because the law in France stating homosexuality as an indecent assault was repealed in 1982, but I've done a little research and I found no mention of somebody having actually been arrested and tried for that since 1945 (as France was occupied by the Nazis from 1940 to 1945, gay people were deported as well as the Jews, Gypsies, political opponents and many others).

Sorry for the history "lesson", I don't want to sound preachy, and offensive even less. But if Internet is good for one thing, it's for people from different cultures, countries and everything to confront their ideas and talk about them. (Insert another word for 'sorry' - I'm running out) for the Off-Topicness :)

Love,
Belphegor :o]