2 ms·

I’m a Canadian, we don’t have free speech in nearly the same way Americans do. Using a gendered pronoun one doesn't prefer is considered hate speech in my count

I’m a Canadian, we don’t have free speech in nearly the same way Americans do. Using a gendered pronoun one doesn't prefer is considered hate speech in my country and has been tested in court [1]; our freedom in this regard is actually very limited. A man was arrested in my town two years ago for holding a crude sign which compared BLM to Marxists. In poor taste, sure, but worthy of being put in handcuffs? I personally don't think so. [1] https://www.them.us/story/canadian-court-rules-misgendering-human-rights-violation https://www.them.us/story/canadian-court-rules-misgendering-...

kmeisthax 5y ago
Context matters. In your specific first example, the person being misgendered was an employee and the person misgendering them was an employer. In other words, the tort is creating a hostile working environment; which absolutely should be illegal and has little if anything to do with freedom of speech. Second example sounds bad on it's face, but I can't actually seem to find a source for it, so I don't have context. I can imagine several contexts in which that might actually be permissible conduct. For example, if the man was protesting by blocking a major thoroughfare, or trying to rile up BLM protesters into attacking him.
- honkdaddy 5y ago
  I'm not sure what source you're looking for, it was one person who got put in a squad car in a small town of a couple thousand people. Who knows whether he was charged, I only heard about it through some local social media. The context was that he was holding a sign on a sidewalk next to a busy road in a sort of solo protest against nothing. Yes context does matter, those were just the first two examples that came to mind. My point remains though, anyone who's lived in both the US and Canada should know without a shadow of a doubt that what you can legally say in Canada is very different from what you can legally say in the US.

kmeisthax 5y ago

Context matters. In your specific first example, the person being misgendered was an employee and the person misgendering them was an employer. In other words, the tort is creating a hostile working environment; which absolutely should be illegal and has little if anything to do with freedom of speech. Second example sounds bad on it's face, but I can't actually seem to find a source for it, so I don't have context. I can imagine several contexts in which that might actually be permissible conduct. For example, if the man was protesting by blocking a major thoroughfare, or trying to rile up BLM protesters into attacking him.

honkdaddy 5y ago
I'm not sure what source you're looking for, it was one person who got put in a squad car in a small town of a couple thousand people. Who knows whether he was charged, I only heard about it through some local social media. The context was that he was holding a sign on a sidewalk next to a busy road in a sort of solo protest against nothing. Yes context does matter, those were just the first two examples that came to mind. My point remains though, anyone who's lived in both the US and Canada should know without a shadow of a doubt that what you can legally say in Canada is very different from what you can legally say in the US.