Free speech is incredibly important, and it is not to be toyed with lightly. People will always say things with which others do not agree. The solution of governments deciding what citizens can say appears draconian on the surface. And it could be!
On the other side of this is that we see people saying false and hurtful things about traumatized people so they can gain power and make money.
Sometimes these people come from a place of ignorance and fear. And, sadly, as is pointed out in the article below, stupidity will always be with us. We can’t legislate it away.
Sometimes people say hurtful things knowingly or recklessly. This is hate. People already traumatized deserve to not be retraumatized. The question then becomes, “How can we protect traumatized people from the ignorant and uncaring?”
There are likely a range of options here and, similar to what we already have in existing hate laws. I am optimistic that Canada can come up with a legal balance that works for residential school denialism. Canadians are good at these balances! This legislation could be nuanced enough that only people who are being deliberately hurtful or willfully ignorant end up being penalized.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/should-residential-school-denialism-declared-hate-speech-1.6744100
Fairness and Prairie Musings 