There certainly is a focus on freedom of speech, and it's in our charter of rights and freedoms as one of the fundamental freedoms: "freedom of thought, belief,

There certainly is a focus on freedom of speech, and it's in our charter of rights and freedoms as one of the fundamental freedoms: "freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication". You're right that we do have a different balance of the common good vs individual liberties as compared to the USA, but of course there are many countries that one could compare to. Canada certainly doesn't abide by free-speech absolutism, and "hate speech" is a good example. That term used to be applied to very specific, extreme examples. Unfortunately that has been watered down in recent years, and we've seen encroachment in others ways on various freedoms. Not Australia levels, but not great.