OTTAWA — As a young child, Dennis Saddleman's mother always ensured he knew how much she loved him, gave him kisses on his forehead and told him how beautiful he was.
  • wise_pancake@lemmy.ca
    243·
    15 days ago

    It makes me very uncomfortable to make speech and holding opinions (whether factual or not) illegal.

    It sets a dangerous precedent and is a double edged sword. What if we’d declared criticizing internment camps or the 60’s scoop as hateful prejudice against Canada? What if the next government makes speaking against oil illegal?

    Education and acknowledgement is the answer. We need to continue making everything about residential schools public. It should be easy to see evidence of their practices, know who ran them, how many children died and where they’re buried, etc. It should be obvious this happened and was awful.

    • Victor Villas@lemmy.ca
      171·
      15 days ago

      This slope is not slippery at all. Denying holocaust has been a crime since 2002 1994 in Germany and yet Germany had no issues with upkeeping free speech in the two three decades since.

      edit: oops it’s actually older than I thought

      • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
        71·
        15 days ago

        TIL it’s that recent. I know there was at least some anti-Nazi laws from the start.

        The slope gets slippery at some point, though, right? I don’t think it’s a stupid thing to worry about, even if ultimately this is the right choice.

          • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
            31·
            14 days ago

            Well, any group in power has incentive to abuse it, and I think history shows they always will given the chance (at least in the long run).

        • Victor Villas@lemmy.ca
          22·
          15 days ago

          The slope gets slippery at some point, though, right? I don’t think it’s a stupid thing to worry about

          Sure. I wouldn’t like to see climate change denialism criminalized in this century and I’d be pretty worried if any government pushed for it - but we’re so so far away from something like that happening. We’re way closer to going backwards in reconciliation.

            • Victor Villas@lemmy.ca
              2·
              14 days ago

              That’s my point. The far-right of this country is already working to destroy opposition and we’re closer to implementing climate change denialism policies and going backward on reconciliation than we’re close to having free speech at danger. And in any case, it’s not like the precedent doesn’t exist already or that the far-right needs the precedent to grow fascist.

              • OneMeaningManyNames@lemmy.mlEnglish
                2·
                14 days ago

                There is basically one thing that people should prevent fascists from doing, and that is getting hold of the state apparatus. Once the army, police, health, education and social services are under far right control there is no horror we can put past them.

    • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
      13·
      15 days ago

      Censorship should make us uncomfortable for all those reasons, but I think history has shown hate speech can’t be beaten with just reason. Whether this specific proposal is worth the precedent is another question on top of that, though.

      • wise_pancake@lemmy.ca
        6·
        15 days ago

        I’m not against it for the tolerance/intolerence aspect, I’m against it for the potential weaponization.

        Could a future government say “woke” speech is hate speech? That’s why I think we need to be careful.

  • Em Adespoton@lemmy.ca
    191·
    16 days ago

    I’d do better with just making such people laughing stocks and pariahs. I feel like criminalizing the behaviour gives it an aura of legitimacy and power it doesn’t deserve.

    • MetaCubed@lemmy.world
      13·
      15 days ago

      Paradox of intolerance to some extent. Residential school denialism in politics and media is still negatively impacting public perception of indigenous people.

    • ProgrammingSocks@pawb.social
      11·
      15 days ago

      The US isn’t doing so hot by just making the fascists “a laughing stock”. More severe consequences are needed. However, there’s MUCH more misinformation they need to target than just this.

  • acargitz@lemmy.ca
    7·
    15 days ago

    Nah, take a page from the Germans and make it a mandatory part of the curriculum of every school board, across every province, build memorials and fund films and cultural programs to institutionalize the memory. It will take 10 years but it will work better than any criminalization.

    EDIT: See comment below. Also, TIL: Holocaust Denial is criminal in Canada, too.

  • Ulrich_the_Old@lemmy.ca
    71·
    15 days ago

    My mother was abused in a residential school. If there were anyone still alive that had anything to do with this I would gladly watch them set on fire… I am beginning to feel the same way about people who deny this happened.

  • fourish@lemmy.world
    1·
    15 days ago

    Given the way the political climate is going, in Canada, criminalizing residential school discussion at all is more likely.