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18 Chitty's L.J. 1 (1970)

handle is hein.journals/chittylj18 and id is 1 raw text is: CHITTY'S LAW JOURNAL Vol. 18, No. 1 January, 1 9 7 0 Hate Propaganda to stop it - an Argument against Attempts by Legislation H. W. ARTHURS, B.A., LL.B.. LL.M. The following is a part of a submission presented by Professor H. W. Arthurs, the Associate Dean of Osgoode Hall Law School of York University, before the Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs, Senate of Canada, when it was considering Bill S-21 being an act to.amend the Criminal Code to outlaw the dissemination of Hate Propaganda. 1. INTRODUCTION I should like to repay the honour this Com- mittee does me in affording me this opportunity to testify by doing so in a frank, and I trust, a useful manner. At the outset, I must say that I have no illusions about the popularity of the position I am going to take, either in this Com- mittee, or in the country -at large. I am here today as an opponent of legislation which is the product of the report of a committee of which the Honourable Prime Minister was a member, which is sought by significant and diverse religious, social, and political groups in our community and which is endorsed by many men and women whom I respect, and whose motives and intellectual abilities I admire. Let me add, should this be necessary, that although I appear today as an opponent of the Bill to outlaw hate propaganda, I am no friend of -those who disseminate it. I am Jewish, and indeed I am a sometime member of the legal committee of the Canadian Jewish Congress. Needless to say, I do not appear as their spokes- man on this issue. Likewise, I am a Vice- President and founding member of the Cana- dian Civil Liberties Association, but they have made their own submissions indicating their reservations about this legislation, and it is not as an officer of that organization that I appear today. Rather, I am here as a citizen who is con- cerned to preserve both liberty and amicable group relations in this country, but who fears that much harm will be done to the former, with little benefit to the latter, by the pro- posed legislation. 2. Free Speech in Canadian Society I will not claim the time of this Committee in order to expound the absolute centrality of free speech in a parliamentary democracy. It is 'the means by which-through debate and persuasion, through appeal to public opinion- changes in social, economic, political, and re- ligious values are sought and sometimes se- cured. It is equally obvious that these changes, brought about through orderly processes, de- pend upon the existence of a market -place of

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