Bill C-16 Speech

Bill C-16 and Free Speech

Thesis: Bill C-16 is not a practical way to combat gender identity-based discrimination.

Intro:

The 2015 Canadian federal elections were quite historical; after 9 years, Stephen Harper’s Conservative party government was finally replaced by Justin Trudeau and the Liberal party of Canada. Many people were unhappy with Harper and were eager to welcome the liberal party in Parliament. A year later, however, it seems that with the rise of the LGBT community and the SJWs, the supposedly center positioned liberal party has radicalized into the left wing.

Recently, a bill has been introduced in Parliament, which seeks to “amend the Canadian human rights code” by adding gender identity to the Canadian federal legislation.

Meanwhile, the professor had done nothing other than refusing to refer to trans students by non-traditional gender pronouns; this prompted the dean of the university to warn him that his words and actions could be considered as discrimination under Ontario’s provincial laws and the new federal legislation (bill c-16) currently in reading, thus putting him and the university of Toronto at risk. This is where the problem is; our freedom of speech and our right to use language is being stepped on because a tiny fraction of the population feels too special for normal pronouns.

What is free speech? That is a question we must think about when we are looking at the issues that arise from the passing of bill c-16. Free speech is the mechanism by which we function as a society and how we interact with one another. It lets us freely form our ideas and express them in a way that is free from social and legislative restrictions. It is a good idea to have some prohibited grounds on free speech when it comes to public hate speech that is directing hatred towards others, however, using traditional gender pronouns should not be considered as hate

When a piece of legislation such as bill c-16 inflicts restrictions on our speech, what’s true may be lost in the ideology and radical left-wing activism of this specific group. Limiting free speech is, as UofT professor Jordan Peterson says, “a line that should not be crossed”. Many immigrants choose to move to Canada because their home countries limit their speech; and when we look at free speech, we think about having the right to criticize your leaders, but that’s only one aspect one. Freedom of speech is not only about speaking out against political leaders, more so, it’s about having the right to express yourself in an alternative and more peaceful ways in order to come to a resolution; so when we put restrictions on free speech, we’re limiting ourselves from using a peaceful alternative as opposed to using violence to solve our problems. As for bill c-16, although its restrictions are to an extent, not that severe, it is still going down a line that should not be crossed because who knows which part of our speech will be restricted next. This is an issue that everyone must take into consideration because under Ontario’s provincial law and the new bill (c-16), this essay could very well be considered as hate