Unintended Consequences of Free Speech - And Why We Need More of Them

On October 7th, 2023 without warning, Hamas terrorists brutally attacked innocent civilians in southern Israel. The scale and viciousness of their attack was really only comparable to Hitler's SS death squads during the second world war. They spared no one, young or old. When the day was done, 1400 innocent Israelis had been brutally murdered, many of whom were women and children.

Hours later across the ocean as news began to break, workers and students in their break rooms, internet cafes, and faculty lounges, began to voice their horror and outrage over these events, and to stand in solidarity with the victims of this carnage.

A minority however began to craft statements of support for Palestine instead. Statements that encouraged the Palestinians to essentially “keep up the good work” and take back their land from the “colonizers”.

Fred Hahn, president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, Canada's largest union, on Thanksgiving weekend only hours after those atrocities, and presumably believing he was speaking on behalf of his members, felt moved to say this:

As we all think about reasons to be thankful this #thanksgiving2023, I know I'm thankful for the power of workers, the power of resistance around the globe. Because #Resistance is fruitful and no matter what some might say, #Resistance brings progress, and for that, I'm thankful

He has since crafted a sort of apology for it because hey, the timing was just wrong. Or something. The comments on this tweet are well worth the read.

Meanwhile, just down the road at York University, three student unions were also coming up with their own masterpiece, part of which reads like this:

We vehemently condemn all forms of colonial violence and support Indigenous sovereignty.

Recently, in a strong act of resistance, the Palestinian people tore down and crossed the illegitimate border fence erected by the settler-colonial apartheid state of so-called Israel. These resistance efforts are a direct response to the ongoing and violent occupation of Palestine.

Well, at least they condemn “colonial violence”, whatever that is. Still not sure about the rape and murder of innocent children though.

Then there was Dr. Jessica Hutchison, who is a social worker at Wilfred Laurier University. According to her bio, her focus is on “researching and disrupting racism, settler colonialism, and gendered state violence”.

She apparently has also done research which “explored how the use of strip searching in women’s prisons is a form of gendered, misogynoir, and colonial genocidal state-inflicted sexual violence.” The words, “colonize” or “decolonize” appear no less than six times in her short bio. I had to look up the word “misogynoir”. In case you're wondering, it refers to “misogyny directed towards black women where race and gender both play a role.”

Obviously.

This was her admonishment to her peers at Wilfred Laurier on Thanksgiving weekend via X (neé Twitter):

I hope your upcoming acknowledgements will include support for Palestinians who are taking their land back from settler colonizers.

Yes, this person is in charge of our young people. I was a little disappointed to learn that she's now hidden her account.

Do we tolerate these people?

Now the question that many are asking is: should these kinds of statements be allowed? Or, in the words of our Prime Minister referring to those protesting mandatory vaccination, “Do we tolerate these people?”

My question is this:

If the government outlaws pro-Palestinian protests, or even those speaking on their behalf, what's to stop them from outlawing any other protest? I mean, we already saw what happened with the Freedom Convoy. Considering they now have precedent for enacting martial law to deal with a non-violent protest, what really is stopping them from doing that to any other protest?

None of this is about moral equivalency, or even majority opinion. It comes down to basic freedom of speech - even speech we don't like. History has proven time and again that if you allow the government to shut anyone up (or demand that they do it), you can rest assured they'll eventually be coming for you as well.

The right to speech is also the right to listen.

Now, back to the unintended consequences of free speech. The purpose of free speech and free expression is not just so you can say whatever you want. The other part of free speech (which is every bit as important as the first part) is the right to listen. There are things that certain people really need to hear and they shouldn't be deprived of that right simply because some people don't agree with those things. This is at the heart of the issue that's been making news in universities across North America. This “right to hear” doesn't only extend to topics that the hearer agrees with. The truth isn't always beauty, as they say.

One of the things we needed to hear right now is what these people who were praising Hamas last week actually think. Many of us have suspected it for years, but the last few weeks erases all doubt. The masks are finally off, you might say (figuratively at least). You may not like what they have to say, but it was necessary to hear it, and now you know who they are.

In this case freedom of speech has pulled back the curtain and now society can be its own judge.

Another unintended consequence of this speech (which, by the way is still protected speech, as it should be) has come in the form of billionaires cancelling donations to universities like Harvard and PennU over their responses to the terror attacks.

The student unions of York University and the University of Toronto also performed a stunning reveal in the last week. Well, stunning to some people anyway.

York University has demanded the resignation of the board members of the three student unions involved and is now also the subject of a $15 million lawsuit alleging recurring anti-semitic incidents going back as far as 2009.

The university gave the unions until October 25th to comply and they have now rejected those demands.

In other university news, 74 law students at Lincoln Alexander School of Law at Toronto Metropolitan University (the university formerly known as Ryerson) have made no bones about the fact that they would love to see the complete destruction of the “settler colony” of Israel and “support all forms of Palestinian resistance and efforts toward liberation”.

I’m not going to get into what “all forms of resistance” might entail, but you can use your imagination if you don't think it'll keep you up at night.

Their statement came out on October 20th, so well after all the grisly details about that initial attack were known, and with plenty of time for thoughtful reflection. And yes, all 74 of these students signed their names to it. Very likely when they put this out on social media they expected to be flooded by likes and hearts and pats on the back, and friends telling them how right and brave they were to take such a stand for the less fortunate. This is undoubtedly what they've become accustomed to in their little bubble.

How shocked they must have been when they realized just how unpopular their sentiments were. It wasn't up for very long when they appear to have had a sudden change of heart and it suddenly disappeared from the interwebs. Don't worry though, because there’s a marvelous invention called “the screenshot” which has now preserved it for all to see:

Needless to say, all signatories have been soundly condemned by the university and others.

The examples of these “unintended consequences” are too numerous to list, and in fact the list is growing as I write. This is a good thing. This is part of the reason why all views and all speech should be allowed, no matter how vile. Regardless of how twisted your ideology is, you should continue to have every right to espouse it. Tell the world. Say it as loud and for as long as you want because we need to hear it. We want to know what you think and more importantly, why you think it. And then we as a society can make an informed decision about what to do with you.

Further reading from BlogOfKen: