A step forward or a step back?
By: Frances Truong
On February 27th, the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) upheld the hate speech provision in Saskatchewan’s Human Rights Code (SHRC) while striking out parts of the provision as overly broad. The judges effectively removed a prohibition on publication that “ridicules, belittles or otherwise affronts the dignity,” reducing the prohibition on publication solely on grounds of exposing “hatred.” They reasoned that the wording of the legislation did not capture the same level of “extreme” feelings towards the targeted group as the word “hatred.” In doing so the legislation placed too broad of a limitation on freedom of expression and could not be justified as a constitutional limitation in a free and democratic society.
While I applaud the Court’s decision in upholding the hate speech provision, I find the decision to strikeout the more expansive prohibition to be problematic, particularly for gays and lesbians in Canada.
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