Supreme Court Canada to reflect on free speech vs. hate protection case

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

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A case playing off freedom of expression against laws banning hate speech will be taken to Canada’s highest court Wednesday, preparing for an ultimate verdict preferring, either groups targeted with hatred or a citizen’s freedom of speech.

Supreme Court of Canada could consume months to make a decision in the case of the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission versus William Whatcott.

The commission is invoking a verdict that upturned its initial decision against Whatcott, who published and distributed four anti-gay flyers in towns and cities in Saskatchewan in 2001 and 2002, which led four people to file complaints with the commission. The flyers used prejudiced words including “filth,” “propaganda” and “sodomy” about gays.

Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin says a normal citizen must know what to say and when to say, such cases should not be dragged in to Supreme Court.

McLachlin said: “When you have words such as belittling or affronting the dignity, which you would seem to concede fall outside the Taylor standard, shouldn’t those words be removed so that the ordinary citizen knows where the line is?”

On the other hand, Commission lawyer Grant Scharfstein said: “We are not saying he cannot express those publicly. What we are saying is that he cannot do it in a way that is hateful.”

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