Canadians just aren't allowed to hate on one another anymore.
Last week Weyburn's Bill Whatcott was deemed by the Supreme Court of Canada to have violated our country's hate-speech laws. Whatcott distributed some homophobic material about 10 years ago, and the country's highest court voted 6-0 to overturn a Saskatchewan Court of Appeal decision and find he was operating outside of his right to worship and had spilled over into expressing hate and discrimination.
Last I checked, a poll on the Regina Leader-Post's website found 80 per cent agree with the decision to shut this guy up, so clearly I'm in the minority here.
As a member of a free press, the rights to expression and speech are sacrosanct, but that doesn't mean everything said or printed is beyond complaint. Libel laws prevent us from writing terrible or perhaps unfounded things about someone. That's a clear limit on our ability to say harmful things about people, and we generally accept that as responsible adults.
The same now goes for people expressing themselves in a hateful way in everyday life. Whatcott can no longer use his Christianity as a defence to spread hate. It's great when hate isn't spread, but some people just get a great feeling out of hate.
This isn't a matter of religious freedom, because Whatcott can continue to believe in all the misguided ideas he wants. It is a matter of the freedom to express oneself without harming anyone. Obviously, we can't express ourselves by attacking randoms on the street.
We don't have to be nice to one another. We don't have to get along. But putting limits on hate is a slippery slope the same way censorship is.
We should all have the right to feel safe. Not everybody needs to accept us for who we are. People don't need to like skinny boys with glasses, but if my neighbours were passing out literature suggesting I had no business living near them or that skinny boys with glasses were a danger to children, I would accept that as just a couple of strangers with a bizarre view of the world.
Not everybody has to like skinny boys with glasses, and we are OK with that.
I understand the pamphlets Whatcott enjoys distributing suggest gay and lesbian people sexually abuse children. It sounds like Whatcott's experience with gay people is woefully limited. Maybe he should just have a coffee with one of the people he claims is a child abuser and just get to know them.
Whatcott's ideas are disgusting, outdated and juvenile, but he is more than welcome to view the world in such a shallow way. His pamphlets should be properly recycled without given a thought.
Thankfully Estevan is too small a community for it to be a city targeted by Whatcott's mailings. I have no plans to renounce any friendship with my gay friends and don't find his argument very persuasive.
It's unfortunate that Whatcott chooses to hate people, when he can choose to accept everyone and live happily. It's an excellent way to get through the day, not having to worry about sexual orientation, colour or religion.
As my grandfather says when my grandmother wants to stomp a spider in their house, "He's just a little guy trying to make his way in the world."
Gay, straight or something in between, we're all just like that spider, trying to make our way in the world.
