A flurry of controversies surrounding who can and cannot speak at university and college campuses has once again raised the spectre that our vaunted free speech rights are under attack. Are they?All the speakers recently in the spotlight already have multiple platforms to spout their views. Certainly, the robustness of the arguments for and against who should speak suggests those rights are very much in action. So, who exactly is arguing against free speech rights? Is it the people protesting the platforms given to those who attack others based on their identity? Or is it those who raise the alarm bell at the protests, but mostly when white far-right speech is concerned?When the controversial French comedian Dieudonné M’Bala M’Bala, who has been convicted of hate speech and anti-Semitism in Europe, landed in Canada in 2016 to give a show in Montreal, border security officials barred him from entering. It was a move that was hailed by the political left and right. “His messages go completely against the Canadian values of religious freedom, tolerance and pluralism,” said Michelle Rempel, Conservative immigration critic. “Conservatives have always stood up against hate speech and those who condone it.”Tom Mulcair, then the NDP leader, also opposed it: `Well, there are laws in Canada. When someone propagates hate against a religious or racial group, we need to ban these people from Canada,” he told media. Dieudonné’s Canadian tour promoter said the comedian was coming in peace and had nothing offensive to say. You would think all those panicking about the fall of free speech rights would have rushed to advocate for this man.That begs the question: Is the furor really about erosion of free speech rights at all? Or, is it about censoring the protests, for fear that the gatekeeping role on what topics are OK to debate be taken away from groups that have traditionally had that power. The free speech erosion boge ...
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