Free speech in Canada is different than in the US. While the exceptions most frequently mobilized against the First Amendment are claims of defamation and obscenity, Canadian free speech is limited to what can “reasonably be justified” in a “free and democratic society.” Restriction to free speech can occur when speech is deemed hateful, presumably because “hate speech,” proscribed by the Canadian Human Rights Act, and “hate propaganda,” proscribed by the Criminal Code of Canada, are understood by Canadians as having no “reasonable justification.”

Consequently, a recent report calling for Ottawa to adopt a definition of anti-semitism that would include any criticism of Israel, made by an organization calling itself the Canadian Parliamentary Coalition to Combat Anti-Semitism (CPCCA), is especially disquieting. Conflating criticism of Israel with anti-semitism could potentially make critique of the Israeli state a species of hate speech. The group seems to be focused in particular on “anti-Israeli” sentiment on university campuses, citing as an example Israeli Apartheid Week, thus overlooking both Jewish involvement in, and the international character of, the event. But impartiality seems to be conspicuously absent here. Rather, it seems simply to be an aggressive attempt to create discourse which likens the Palestinian human rights movement with ostensive “new anti-semitism” and recasts political speech as “hate speech.”

It remains to be seen if anything will be made of the CPCCA’s report. If so, it will have the unfortunate distinction of being even more draconian than Israel’s own recent attempts at repression of critical discourse. This last Monday, Israel passed a law banning the implementation of boycotts on Israeli goods. In any case, although Canada’s Prime Minister is a staunch ally of Israel, the fact that the CPCCA’s report seems to flagrantly contravene “reasonable justification” bolsters one’s hope that this report is relegated to the dustbin.

Members of the Faculty of Palestine have written an article on this matter in one of Canada’s national papers. It can be read here.