In a hearing convened by Canada’s Alberta Human Rights Tribunal on Monday, the lawyer for an anti-transgender advocate in the small town of Westlock (90 miles north of Edmonton), argued that a flyer distributed by her client calling on residents to protest the installation of a rainbow crosswalk with a trans flag was not hate speech, but an exercise in “free speech.”
“Could it be upsetting? Yes. Could it cause hurt feelings? Yes. But does it cause a person to feel hatred or contempt for trans individuals? We will say the answer to that question is a resounding no,” attorney Allison Pejovic said in opening remarks at the hearing.
Blithely perhaps. But surely they have reasons for protesting. I’m assuming these reasons aren’t pedestrian safety, fiscal cost due to wear & tear, or aesthetic merits. Logically speaking if one is protesting colours of paint, because of other people, it can only be because they hate those people.
At a certain point we have to remember that fascism always seeks to usurp the spirit of laws by threatening us with the letters of the laws.
I don’t disagree, I just worry a lot about that last point you made. This could easily become a cudgel for all sorts of things that worry me.
Yea fair. I actually just reworded it slightly.
It’s already a cudgel. Pro-ICE kid that got hit full video. Quantitatively speaking, I don’t think what you’re concerned about is even a blip on the radar compared to the social harm already being experienced every day. Like yes people could go to jail under a ‘bad government’ but like conservatism is literally killing the planet. I’ll cross that other bridge if we even get there.