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27 Rev. Const. Stud. 145 (2022-2023)
Beyond the Hate Speech Law Debate: A "Charter Values" Approach to Free Expression

handle is hein.journals/revicos27 and id is 147 raw text is: Beyond the Hate Speech Law Debate: A Charter Values Approach to Free Expression Emmett Macfarlane* Debates over what to do about hate speech continue to rage, in contexts that range from social media to campus speech. That legal restrictions on hate speech remain controversial despite major Charter cases upholding Canadas anti-hate speech laws reflects a number of issues, including: the effectiveness of anti-hate speech laws; the evidence about, and diffuse nature of; the harms involved in hate speech that falls short of targeted harassment or incitement of violence; the high threshold the Supreme Court has drawn for identifying when hateful speech crosses the line into unlawful hate speech; and the authorities' tendency to censor or suppress speech, especially when censorship is wielded against members of oppressed groups. This article argues in favour of a Charter values approach to free expression that seeks to enhance the expressive freedoms of individuals and groups subjected to historical and ongoing forms of oppression. After analyzing the Courts approach to assessing Canada's hate speech laws, this article contends that debates over the legitimacy and effectiveness of hate speech laws, which apply to such a miniscule number of relevant instances of hateful speech and falsely pit free expression against equality, distract us from properly remedying one of the most pressing consequences of hate speech: the impairment of human dignity and the sense of belonging of targeted groups within our society. Instead, a Charter values approach imposes obligations on relevant institutions to take positive action to enhance and protect the expressive freedom Les debats sur les mesures h prendre h l'encontre du discours haineux, autant dans le contexte des medias sociaux que dans celui de la liberte academique, continuent de faire rage. Le fait que les restrictions juridiques h l'egard du discours haineux demeurent controversies, malgre d'importantes causes fondes sur la Charte qui ont confirme les lois canadiennes relatives au discours haineux, met en lumiere un certain nombre de questions. Parmi celles-ci, on compte notamment l'efflcacite des lois contre le discours haineux; les preuves et la nature diffuse des prejudices causes par le discours haineux qui ne constitue pas du harcelement ciblU ou de l'incitation h la violence; le seuil leve que la Cour supreme a etabli pour determiner quand un discours haineux franchit la ligne et devient un discours illegal; et la tendance des autorites de censurer ou de supprimer le discours haineux, notamment lorsqu'il est exerce h l'encontre de membres de groupes opprimes. Cet article plaide en faveur d'une approche de la liberte d'expression fondee sur les o valeurs de la Charte », une approche qui vise h renforcer la liberte d'expression des individus et desgroupes soumis h des formes historiques et continues d'oppression. Apres avoir analyse l'approche de la Cour pour evaluer les lois canadiennes relatives au discours haineux, l'article soutient que les debats sur ces lois, qui s'appliquent h un nombre infime de cas pertinents de discours haineux, nous empechent de remedier adequatement h l'une des consequences les plus importantes du discours haineux : 145 * Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Waterloo.

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