Canadian political leaders recently sparred over the limits of free expression. The exchange of views in Canada began in late October 2020 after Muslim killers in France had carried out separate attacks on a schoolteacher and three people in a church. Two journalists were also wounded outside Charlie Hebdo’s newsroom. These attacks occurred while a court …
In October 2020, two English-language school boards in Montreal decided to temporarily withdraw a high-school history workbook that includes a racial epithet. They also decided to put opaque stickers over the epithet. Journeys Through the History of Québec and Canada refers to Pierre Vallières’s White Niggers of America. Vallières’s book, which was originally published in French in …
Governments around the world are using the COVID-19 pandemic to justify greater censorship and surveillance on the Internet, says a report published by Freedom House in the United States. Yet Internet freedom in Canada remains extremely good, the report says. REPORTAGE At CTV News, Solarina Ho and Mahima Singh report: https://www.ctvnews.ca/sci-tech/covid-19-eroding-global-internet-freedom-canada-among-the-most-free-report-says-1.5145180 Read Freedom House’s report — Freedom on …
Media release courtesy: PEN Canada TORONTO, ON, October 26, 2020 – Maria Saba is the recipient of the 2020 PEN Canada-Humber College Writers-in-Exile Scholarship, which provides peer mentorship to one member of PEN Canada’s Writers-in-Exile program each year. An Iran-born writer, storyteller and arts educator, Saba has published three books and over a hundred articles, interviews, …
In Quebec, the director of criminal and penal prosecutions has decided not to appeal the acquittals of the author and publisher of Hansel et Gretel. On September 24, 2020, a judge in the Superior Court of Quebec acquitted author Yvan Godbout of the charge of producing child pornography. Godbout’s horror novel Hansel et Gretel includes …
Governments around the world are using the COVID-19 pandemic to justify greater censorship and surveillance on the Internet, says a report published by Freedom House in the United States. Yet Internet freedom in Canada remains extremely good, the report says. REPORTAGE At CTV News, Solarina Ho and Mahima Singh report: https://www.ctvnews.ca/sci-tech/covid-19-eroding-global-internet-freedom-canada-among-the-most-free-report-says-1.5145180 Read Freedom House’s report …
In Toronto, the appeal of two men convicted of promoting hatred against women and Jews has been rescheduled. Ontario’s Superior Court should begin hearing the appeal of James Sears and LeRoy St. Germaine on Nov. 10, 2020. Sears and St. Germaine worked together on Toronto’s Your Ward News. REPORTAGE The Canadian Press reports: COMMENTARY In …
In a letter to the chief and council of the Kwantlen First Nation, the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA) argues that section 2(b) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms applies to First Nations people. Section 2(b) protects the fundamental freedoms of “thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and …
In Ottawa, David Lametti, the justice minister and attorney general of Canada, is seeking “legal remedies” to counter hateful expression on the Internet. The Department of Justice recently sent a letter to advocacy groups, asking them to provide ideas to fight “hate speech” on the Internet. The department didn’t make the letter public and didn’t …
In southern Ontario, provincial police laid criminal charges against journalist Karl Dockstader after he had filed reports about a land dispute in August. Mr. Dockstader had spent several days at the site of a land dispute between the Haudenosaunee and Foxgate Developments in Caledonia. The Ontario Provincial Police charged Mr. Dockstader with mischief and failure …