Crimson > Canada has Hate Speech laws, and me and PEJ have apparently fallen afoul of them. Or, so says the British Columbia branch of the B'nai Brith organization.
I'm not a lawyer but we also have hate speech laws in SA and I would say giving a political opinion, even an unfair one, is not hate speech -- which is usually an attempt to degrade, intimidate, or incite violence or prejudicial action against a person or group of people based on their race, gender, age, ethnicity, nationality, religion, sexual orientation. Nowhere does the definition include dislike for and criticism of the actions of countries, especially in times of war, which the 50+ year old Israeli/Palestinian conflict certainly is.
en.wikipedia.org
>> In Canada, advocating genocide or inciting hatred against any 'identifiable group' is an indictable offense under the Canadian Criminal Code with maximum terms of two to fourteen years. An 'identifiable group' is defined as 'any section of the public distinguished by colour, race, religion, ethnic origin or sexual orientation.' It makes exceptions for cases of statements of truth, and subjects of public debate and religious doctrine.<<
Of course, Zionists will attempt to expand the definition to include anything they don't like so that they can criminalize all anti-Zionist sentiment, and not just Holocaust "denial". Therefore it will be very interesting to see the outcome of the case. |
