The right to freedom of speech is one thing but when you are outright denouncing and slandering other people with printed hate literature it's completely another.
Everyone has the right to their own opinion but that doesn't mean you are correct or that you should be pushing all that you believe on everyone else.
A Saskatchewan man - a so called "anti-gay crusader" was (and says he will continue to) developing flyers and pamphlets denouncing homosexuals and distributing them to the public. Among whatever other messages involved he says that all gay men are "sodomites and pedophiles." Now regardless of what one chooses to believe (and I will clearly say I DO NOT believe this) this is just plain ridiculous to print and distribute in public.
Luckily the case (of Bill Whatcott who calls Regina home) has been taken to the Supreme Court of Canada where it was ruled at least two of his flyers violate the Saskatchewan Human Rights Code. I would say so.
Just because a person has a partner preference that may different from your own doesn't make them a pedophile or anything else. And it certainly doesn't give you the right to call them down publicly. To each his own.
This isn't the first time Whatcott has garnered public attention. In fact he's made a habit of it over many years. The graphic nature of his literature, and his protests have gotten him in repeated legal trouble. He has been arrested six times in Saskatchewan, but never convicted of any charge and he's also been arrested once in the United States, 20 times in Ontario and successfully prosecuted twice. In 2005, he was fined $17,500 by the Saskatchewan Human Rights Tribunal for distributing material deemed hateful by the Human Rights Tribunal.
Wouldn't you think he would get the hint?
Apparently not. Even after the recent Supreme Court ruling he says he's not going to stop. "I won't change my mind," he says. "I'll put out flyer until I'm in a hospital bed or jail. I don't believe that the Supreme Court has the right to censor this kind of speech. If they do, they're wrong."
Being of strong conviction can be a good thing but in this instance it's carrying things too far. Apparently this guy has far too much time and money on his hands.
