In Canada, freedom of speech is not absolute: it is subject to restrictions.
However, to prove a violation under the Canadian Human Rights Commission, several conditions have to be met to justify a prosecution.
Canada’s freedom of speech rights are therefore a compromise between absolute freedom and restricted freedom of speech.
In particular, the following elements that the speech used is in fact unprotected have to be satisfied:
Here you can be put in jail for hate speech. But before you condemn the prospect of jail for speaking your mind, consider the built-in limits to the hate speech law. There are seven of them, and together they pour a big pail of cold water on any over-zealous prosecutor intent on duct-taping your mouth. For a prosecution to go ahead, all of these conditions must be met:
1. The hate speech must be the most severe of the genre;
2. The hate speech must be targeted to an identifiable group;
3. It must be public;
4. It must be deliberate, not careless;
5. Excluded from hate speech are good faith interpretations of religious doctrine, discussion of issues of public interest, and literary devices like sarcasm and irony;
6. The statements must be hateful when considered in their social and historical context;
7. No prosecution can proceed without approval of the attorney-general, which introduces political accountability because the attorney-general is a cabinet minister.
I welcome a commentary.