An Essay on Freedom of Speech
by Joan Felvinci

The author is a retired teacher of English as a Second Language. She has an MA in Art History from Columbia University and currently writes short stories and articles. She lives in Montreal.

In her short essay, Joan describes the threat that Motion-103 poses to our Freedom of Speech.
 

The other evening, Tucker Carlson on Fox News interviewed the movie star, Richard Dreyfuss. I thought I was going to hear the opinions of another Hollywood feather-brain. What I heard was astonishing. Dreyfuss stated that the Constitution defines the United States. He also said that the Ten Commandments are among the foundations of Western Civilization. He went on to say that we have lost our values, that teaching Civics in High School ended in 1976 and as a result, people under fifty-five have lost the understanding of what the Constitution stands for. Since then, we have been on a downward trajectory toward civilizational oblivion brought on by attacks on freedom of speech, resulting in political correctness. This coming from a liberal West Coast actor was incredibly refreshing, yet unfortunately, true.

The undermining of our values and culture is becoming increasingly evident: allowing illegal immigrants into the U.S. and Canada, while legal immigrants wait years to get in. In addition, we are bringing over huge numbers of refugees, many of whom have no knowledge of our laws, culture or democracy and most likely have no interest in assimilating. We are kowtowing to those who would enact motions like M- 103. This motion only addresses Islamophobia, whatever that is. Yet it does nothing to prevent attacks on Christians and Jews. According to recent statistics, anti-Semitic attacks far outnumber attacks on Muslims in North America. Only on conservative blogs does one hear of Imams in Canada preaching, “Kill the Jews”. This will never be reported in the mainstream media. How many Muslims speak up for our values or condemn these rants against Jews? Very few. Only B’nai Brith or CIJA have protested these Imams, most likely to no avail. Motions like M-103 will eventually end in limiting freedom of speech.

Freedom of speech means you should be able to say anything you want about any group of people so long as you do not instigate violence. Saying “kill the Jews” is instigation to violence and this kind of language will only get worse until it results in violence. It is already happening in Europe. The United States, thankfully, has the First Amendment that protects freedom of speech but even there, freedom of speech is under attack on University campuses. Yet, even though Canada has laws to protect freedom of speech, these laws can easily be eroded by motions like M-103. The result could be imprisonment for posting politically incorrect statements on social media. Conservative bloggers could be fined or jailed for what is called, “Islamophobia”. If the undermining of freedom of speech continues, we will be living in George Orwell’s “1984” within a very short time.

The other evening, Tucker Carlson on Fox News interviewed the movie star, Richard Dreyfuss. I thought I was going to hear the opinions of another Hollywood feather-brain. What I heard was astonishing. Dreyfuss stated that the Constitution defines the United States. He also said that the Ten Commandments are among the foundations of Western Civilization. He went on to say that we have lost our values, that teaching Civics in High School ended in 1976 and as a result, people under fifty-five have lost the understanding of what the Constitution stands for. Since then, we have been on a downward trajectory toward civilizational oblivion brought on by attacks on freedom of speech, resulting in political correctness. This coming from a liberal West Coast actor was incredibly refreshing, yet unfortunately, true.

The undermining of our values and culture is becoming increasingly evident: allowing illegal immigrants into the U.S. and Canada, while legal immigrants wait years to get in. In addition, we are bringing over huge numbers of refugees, many of whom have no knowledge of our laws, culture or democracy and most likely have no interest in assimilating. We are kowtowing to those who would enact motions like M- 103. This motion only addresses Islamophobia, whatever that is. Yet it does nothing to prevent attacks on Christians and Jews. According to recent statistics, anti-Semitic attacks far outnumber attacks on Muslims in North America. Only on conservative blogs does one hear of Imams in Canada preaching, “Kill the Jews”. This will never be reported in the mainstream media. How many Muslims speak up for our values or condemn these rants against Jews? Very few. Only B’nai Brith or CIJA have protested these Imams, most likely to no avail. Motions like M-103 will eventually end in limiting freedom of speech.

Freedom of speech means you should be able to say anything you want about any group of people so long as you do not instigate violence. Saying “kill the Jews” is instigation to violence and this kind of language will only get worse until it results in violence. It is already happening in Europe. The United States, thankfully, has the First Amendment that protects freedom of speech but even there, freedom of speech is under attack on University campuses. Yet, even though Canada has laws to protect freedom of speech, these laws can easily be eroded by motions like M-103. The result could be imprisonment for posting politically incorrect statements on social media. Conservative bloggers could be fined or jailed for what is called, “Islamophobia”. If the undermining of freedom of speech continues, we will be living in George Orwell’s “1984” within a very short time.