Which Tremaine?
Regarding the arrest of Terry Tremaine in Canada for thought crimes, the Canadian Parliament regards protecting racial, religious and other minorities from being offended as more important than the right to free speech. Therefore, it enacted the Human Rights Act to more easily ferret out dissidents and see to it that they are prosecuted.
The Canadian Charter Article 1 provides that the Charter ”guarantees the rights and freedoms set out in it subject only to such reasonable limits prescribed by law as can be demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society” and this has been interpreted by the Canadian courts and Human Rights Commission in a such manner which makes its constitutional guarantee of free speech pretty much meaningless when compared to other "collective rights and interests". It is utterly useless in protecting free speech when that speech might offend someone, especially if it is considered the untimate no-no, "hate speech". It states:
"Although freedom of expression is an important fundamental value, we in Canada value just as much the equality rights of all individuals. Equality means a respect for the inherent dignity of all human beings whatever their colour, race, language, sex or religion. Freedom to express one’s idea ceases to be freedom of expression or opinion when it is used to stand in the way of the promotion of equality. Freedom of expression ceases to be a fundamental characteristic of democratic values when it becomes a vehicle for the promotion of hate."
The US Constitution’s First Amendment is different..so far..as it guarantees freedom of speech very directly, and it has been long interpreted not to permit any law which abridges free speech unless that speech is appropriately dangerous to life or limb or libelous. The John Paul Zenger trial in 1735 set the president and gave birth to a free and open press in America (within a half-century members of the First Congress debated the proposed Bill of Rights). Of course those age old tenets of a free society are in grave danger today because of only one issue: the so-called holocaust. This exception to our cherished legal notions is what is (to use the words of a popular Revolutionary War song) "turning the world upside down" today.
Anyway, the Terry Tremaine situation brings to mind that well-loved, patriotic 1943 American children's book aptly named "Johnny Tremain" by Esther Forbes. Set during the time of the American revolution, the main character of the book, Johnny Tremain, is an apprentice silversmith and painfully injures his hand. Johnny is rescued by a kind family who owns a hand-operated printing press and publishes a newspaper (ala John peter Zenger). Johnny meets and befriends another young man who becomes his best friend and role model and who introduces him to radical political views in Boston on the eve of the revolution. Young Tremain becomes part of the printshop, and delivers papers to the people of Boston, joining the Sons of Liberty along the way and befriending several historical figures including Paul Revere, Samuel Adams, John Hancock, and Joseph Warren. The novel includes historical events like the Boston Tea Party and the famous run by Paul Revere. There are parallels to be drawn.
Our enemy is not so obvious as the enemy of the Sons of Liberty. He is a masked bandit, an insidious villain who creeps into our cherished legal traditions and undermines them to avoid close scrutiny of his own nefarious activities.
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