Remember: free speech is being redefined as speech that agrees with the prevailing norms. Anything else is hate speech.
“Policy advocate criticizing London council’s emergency motion as an ‘attack on free speech,’” by Liny Lamberink and Matthew Trevithick, AM980, August 23, 2017:
London City Hall is coming under fire for what some are calling an “attack on free speech”, after unanimously passing an emergency motion Tuesday night to stand against hatred and racism.
It comes in response to an anti-Islam rally scheduled on Saturday by the Canadian chapter of the German nationalist and far-right political movement Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West, or PEGIDA in its German abbreviation.
London Institute Executive Director Amir Farahi has accused council of making a “knee-jerk” reaction by condemning the activities of organizations whose ideologies are contrary to the city’s.
“[Mayor Matt Brown] said there’s no place in London for racism, bigotry, and hatred. Okay, I agree with you… but there certainly is a place for us to free assembly and for us to freely express ourselves,” Farahi said Wednesday on AM980’s The Andrew Lawton Show.
The motion is as follows: “That civic administration be directed to prepare the necessary formal council policy to confirm the prohibition of activities of organizations whose ideologies is contrary to the City of London are not permitted in civic spaces, and/or facilities and spaces.”
Farahi has launched a Change.org petition, calling on Mayor Matt Brown to repeal part of the motion.
“I’m quite disgusted by the fact that our fundamental rights, our constitutional rights here in Canada, in London, are basically being taken away from us under the guise of political correctness.”
He points out that victims of hate speech are already protected by hate speech laws, and violators face the full extent of the law….
Mayor Matt Brown has now committed to attending the counter-protest, despite saying in a radio interview this month that it would be inappropriate for him to attend and give unneeded attention to the anti-Islam group.
“I didn’t want to throw fuel in the fire,” he explained on AM980’s The Craig Needles Show.
“I’ve seen a ground swell of people moving toward attending the anti-hate rally, which I think is very positive. So I’ve moved my schedule around, and I want to join London and stand together, and just express that the vast majority of Londoners don’t accept hate.”…