Steyn surveys the state of “free” speech up north

“No doubt some of the above ‘hate speech’ is hurtful and dehumanizing and offensive, but that’s the point: The price of liberty is eternal offensiveness. There is a name for societies that successfully outlaw offensiveness from the public space: Totalitarian.

“Nevertheless, in Maclean’s this week, there’s a fairly typical letter from an ever-so-reasonable reader, Lauren Demaree of Windsor, Ontario:

PLACING LIMITS on free speech is a slippery slope, but that is not the only issue in play here. There is often a fine line that is crossed between opinion and hate propaganda and our laws need to reflect this more effectively. Where do we draw the line…?

“This is the future of ‘multiculturalism’: a society in which, in the interests of protecting the ‘collective rights’ of various identity groups, individual rights are circumscribed and public discourse is ever more regulated by the state. Good luck making that work, Canada.”