Freedom of speech: Essay 3

Freedom of speech, undoubtedly a good thing, it is one of the very pillars of the modern democratic world. The Canadian charter of rights and freedoms lets people speak democratically until politeness is done away with and it is replaced by slander, lies or hatred. That is what free speech should be, some reasons for this are: it sets a more positive tone for children and people in their developing years, it makes people more responsible for their language and it disallows people who are racist, sexist or discriminatory to insult others legally.

The start off, children are very susceptible to outside influences and can easily be shaped by them, so it is beneficial to them and for us that they do not grow up in an environment where people are allowed to make racial or ethnic slurs without repercussion. Unlike adults, children are inquisitive and will try to find out what a word means and even use it to feel cool, telling their friend, creating a "chain-reaction" of kids learning bad new words.

Furthermore, it causes people to hold their tongues, especially in public places. If a person is racist or has negative opinions against anything to do with a person the threat of legal repercussion would do wonders to keep their opinions to themselves. This in turn creates a more multi-cultural society, as immigrants flock to Canada or other nations with rules like this because they feel safe or accepted from bigotry of racial violence.

Last but not least, this kind of freedom of speech makes it unable for others to legally insult other people based on their race, creed, size or any other factor. Take the recent incident with Ann Coulter as an example; a radical, bigoted and mean-spirited American who was told that Canada does not allow hatred and evil top be preached, yet did it anyway at one university, making the University of Ottawa protest until she canceled her speech there.

To conclude, because t sets a more positive tone for children and people in their developing years, it makes people more responsible for their language and it disallows people who are racist, sexist or discriminatory to insult others legally, freedom of speech should exist but should not exist when hate speech and slander are used.