Four philosophers and our deadly colonial mindset
“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
Benjamin Franklin
This quote is one of those truisms that fall apart when you consider actual real-world examples. Because almost everyone has their own idea of what kind of "liberty" may be forfeited in order to attain a particular notion of "safety".
If, for example, you were to ask any of the NDP governments which have enacted "bubble zones" around abortion-clinics to justify their curtailment of free-expression, they would likely answer with something very close to "protecting the safety of women".
Free expression is not curtailed by excluding it from a limited location. You can't yell fire in a crowded theatre unless their is one. Free speech is not absolute.
Free expression is not curtailed by excluding it from a limited location. You can't yell fire in a crowded theatre unless their is one. Free speech is not absolute.
So, if I were to propose, say, a law stipulating a bubble zone around Catholic churches where GLBQT activists can't protest, you'd say that's not a violation of free-speech, since it's only curtailing speech in a limited location?
As an overview of the whole issue...
How far can you go with a restriction before it qualifies as "giving up liberty", in the undesirable sense that Franklin meant?
Is it just a question of location, ie. as long as you're only being stopped from protesting in a certain place(eg. a clinic, a church), but can protest elsewhere, you're not giving up liberty?
Or does it relate to the content of the speech, eg. under Canada's Hate Laws, you can't give a speech saying that members of a certain racial group all genetically predisposed to be murderous savages, no matter where you're giving the speech?
Or...
Even more deadly is the concept that Canada is somehow oppressed by an external empire, when it has an internal empire (replete with Provinces - and twice the size of Imperial Rome at its furthest extent) and an external empire with 75% of the world's mining operations. Canada is an oppressor, and part of the global financial Imperium.