Josh Dehaas: How Canada Lost its Way on Freedom of Speech

Most Canadians would likely never have heard of conservative American Christian singer Sean Feucht had city councils and government officials not spent their summers shutting him down. But this latest exercise in censorship would hardly be possible, explains constitutional lawyer Josh Dehaas, had Canada’s courts not spent the last few decades arbitrarily expanding the definition of harmful expression. In this perceptive and accessible essay, Dehaas walks through the legal decisions that have eroded the simple, clear conception of free speech that once guided the English-speaking democracies and exposes the flawed thinking that has made Canada what it is today: a country where a performer can be banned before he has said – or sung – a word.