What is freedom of artistic expression?

Have Canadians thought about freedom of expression versus freedom of speech?

• Freedom of Expression, according to the is essential in enabling democracy to work and to assist public participation in decision-making. Citizens cannot exercise their right to vote effectively or take part in public decision-making if they do not have free access to information and ideas and are not able to express their views freely. Freedom of expression is thus not only important for individual dignity but also to participation, accountability and democracy. Violations of freedom of expression often go hand in hand with other violations, in particular the right to freedom of association and assembly. Freedom of expression is a more Universal right. As Canadians we do have the right to speak as we wish as long as it does not impede the legal system or the rights of others.   When the right to voice HATEful SPEECH is legally sanctioned by only Freedom of Speech it becomes a devastating tool utilized to hurl widespread abuse from far too many angles because there are no filters.  It creates more hatred, more social dissonance and has terribly far-reaching effects. Freedom of Expression foments less social discord because it limits the filth that haters and agitators are legally able to spew out into our world. I suggest that the necessity of awareness of how one's words affect others and the need for discipline in exercising control of how one delivers their public opinion is absolutely necessary in order to serve the higher good of all more effectively. I do not speak of political correctness because I think the  PC movement has made many Canadians into excellent liars. They think one thing but say another in order to be politically correct. I do not consider this to serve the higher good of anyone as it is deceitful. We are a multi -cultural society and we must consider everyone not just one faction of our society. Words separate or unify. They create harmony or war. Hatred or acceptance. We all need to hold ourselves accountable for what we say. I think the Canadian Charter of Rights has it right on in this issue.  Words are powerful and, yes, they can and do hurt or help others. http://www.pch.gc.ca/eng/1355260548180/1355260638531

• Answer:

  TL:DR Canada has historically taken extreme measures to protect certain classes from discrimination and hate speech, but that's changing as the context for discrimination changes.   In Canada we put a lot more restrictions on freedom of speech than our American friends do, and it's primarily a reflection of our stance on multiculturalism. In fact, the Canadian Human Rights Act (CHRA) of 1977 is probably more important than the Charter of Rights and Freedoms in this regard.   The Charter of Rights & Freedoms is baked into our Constitution, and as a result it would supersede the CHRA if the two were found to be in conflict BUT it's the CHRA that has made the majority of impact with regard to freedom of speech because it created the Canadian Human Rights Commission. The Commission is basically a complaints department where any aggrieved Canadian person can file a grievance against someone else in Canada because they believe their rights (as set out in the CHRA) have been violated. Unfortunately this has led to an embarrassing series of grievances where the Commission has ruled in favor of the complainant for really stupid complaints, which have undermined the legitimacy of the CHRA as a whole. See link below for details:   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Human_Rights_Commission_free_speech_controversies   In particular, a major problem has been with Section 13 of the CHRA, which enabled the Commission to award cash to complainants. Jonathan Kay of the National Post puts it best: "All that was required was a complainant (often someone with professional ties to the CHRC itself) willing to sign his name to a piece of paper, claim he was offended, and then collect his cash winnings at the end of the process. The system was bogus and corrupt."   Here's the link to Kay's full story.   http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2012/06/07/jonathan-kay-good-riddance-to-section-13-of-the-canadian-human-rights-act/   Thankfully that farce is now gone as of June this year. But it remains true that freedom of speech is a hotly contested issue. The major difference between Canada and the USA is that the USA tends to respect the individual more than it respects groups, and Canada tends toward the opposite. And the nature of discrimination has changed drastically. It was easy to protect from racial and sexual discrimination - being a liberal country we're quite willing to extend protected status to these groups. So we would shut down neo-Nazi websites and such, and no one really argues.   But with religion it gets more complicated. For example, can an Islamic school be barred from teaching anti-Semitic sentiment to Muslim children? Can Christian groups be punished for teaching anti-gay sentiment to Christian children, or out in public? These are complicated issues that affect large groups of people. Canada has historically taken the legislative route that says "no one gets to hate anyone here". But we've started realizing that there's a lot of religion in Canada, and hate is an important part of religion. So is it more important to protect certain classes of people from hate, or is it more important to allow people freedom of religion?   In my opinion, the people who argue in favor of censorship tend to oversimplify the issue.