“The Human Rights Commission actions against Maclean’s magazine by the Canadian Islamic Congress, Catholic Insight by a complainant angered by that magazine’s stance on homosexuality, the student councils at universities in Canada being dragged before commissions because of their refusal to recognize pro-life student groups and the continuing arguments about whether publishing the Danish cartoons about Islam are hate literature are all examples of how we are losing our ability to talk, argue and agree to disagree that once was a fundamental aspect of liberal democracies. This abbreviated list of actions tells us that both the religious and the secular are willing to seek out the means to silence their opponents.
“The danger is that no one wants, or should want, those we disagree with to be gagged by the state or by force of any kind. As human beings seized with minds and reason we have to understand and accept that preventing someone from voicing an opinion doesn’t mean that their silence is evidence that they agree with our view. Arguably, silencing an opinion might be the truest way of ensuring its continued survival.”
