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Wednesday, July 08, 2009

"Hate law is in danger of being seen as an ass"

Love the "in danger" bit:

Where do you stand on the classic Canadian issue of freedom of speech vs. hate? There's the constitutionally guaranteed free speech. And there are anti-hate laws, under the Criminal Code as well as the federal and provincial human rights codes.


Classic in the sense that Led Zeppelin is "classic" rock. Both the Human Rights commissions and Jimmy Page's best guitar work date from the late 1960s and 1970s.  For most of Canadian history there was no issue regarding hate speech vs free speech.  With the exception of libel and blasphemy (the last enforced sporadically) the right to speak freely was par for the course.  It was one of those things that distinguished Canada from those benighted places everyone was trying to flee. The governments of the day assumed that British subjects - which we were until 1977 - were grown up enough to decide between common sense and nonsense. A politically correct minder appointed by the state would have seemed not just absurd but tyrannical. 

The Supreme Court has upheld both sets of laws. Neither trumps the other. They work in balance.


In the sense that poison and antidote work in balance, the latter remedying the effects of the former. One of the cliches of the inter-war period was that the problems of democracy could be cured by more democracy. The argument applies far better to free speech. Suppressing speech, even unpleasant speech, was seen as counter productive.  If something was false and wicked it would be easier fight in the open.  Turning wannabe Hitlers and Mussolinis into martyrs would accomplish nothing. A while back the Steyn observed that rather than trying to ban fascists in the 1930s, the British simply mocked them. PG Wodehouse invented the ludicrous character of Roderick Spode, the amateur dictator who designed ladies' undergarments in his spare time.  Spode was a send up of Oswald Mosley. One good joke, Wodehouse understood, does the job of thousands of eloquent denunciations: 

The trouble with you, Spode, is that just because you have succeeded in inducing a handful of half-wits to disfigure the London scene by going about in black shorts, you think you're someone. You hear them shouting "Heil, Spode!" and you imagine it is the Voice of the People. That is where you make your bloomer. What the Voice of the People is saying is: "Look at that frightful ass Spode swanking about in footer bags! Did you ever in your puff see such a perfect perisher?"


Sadly the one thing the modern human rights industry lacks is a sense of humour.

Posted by Richard Anderson on July 8, 2009 | Permalink

Comments

The one thing ANY modern female-dominated institution lacks is a sense of humour, Publius.

Posted by: Shane Matthews | 2009-07-08 6:21:50 AM

Hate laws is the criminalisation of feelings and emotions; that is the feelings and emotions that others attribute to a person's actions. They assume that hatred was the cause of the violence or crime. The idea of such laws flies in the face of reason and certainly freedom. It is impossible to know what went on in the mind of the other person prior to and during the act. In other words certain people are allowed to set themselves up as mind-readers.

It is interesting that the supporters of such laws claim to work for freedom and equality, when such laws create a society that lacks freedom and equality. Equality would mean that anyone committing the same crime receives the same punishment, regardless of the colour, sex, ethnic group or whatever.

Posted by: Alain | 2009-07-08 10:33:47 AM

They did ban the fascists. The ban on wearing uniforms was initiated in 1936 and then the BUF was banned outright in 1940. Mosley and others were interned for the duration of the war.

Posted by: DJ | 2009-07-08 3:12:10 PM

Banned in 1940. The war started in 1939.

Posted by: Publius | 2009-07-08 3:15:30 PM

"The war started in 1939."

But it was Britain who declared war on Germany, not the other way round.

Posted by: Shane Matthews | 2009-07-08 3:26:46 PM

The Public Order Act 1936 required police consent for political marches after the Battle of Cable Street. Jews and Irish Catholics rioted and the free association of Englishmen is eliminated. Sounds like a ban. The year was 1936. Steyn is wrong.

Posted by: DJ | 2009-07-08 3:33:18 PM

Thanks for the advice, B.

Posted by: DJ | 2009-07-08 3:39:54 PM

Not unlike Christie Pits on August 16, 1933. Jews and Italians riot and the free expression of Canadians is denied.

Posted by: DJ | 2009-07-08 3:48:26 PM

Until 1977 Canadians were also British subjects.

Posted by: Publius | 2009-07-08 3:59:21 PM


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