Canadian Constitution Foundation

Albertans can now speak a little freer than before

Karen Selick

Globe and Mail, December 14, 2009

Residents of Alberta can now speak almost as freely about controversial issues as residents of eastern Canada, thanks to a ruling handed down by the Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench on December 3, 2009.

The decision involved Stephen Boissoin, an Alberta pastor who in 2002 wrote a letter to his local newspaper, the Red Deer Advocate, expressing his fierce opposition to what he called the “wicked homosexual agenda” for Alberta’s schools.

Alberta is more free thanks to court ruling

John Carpay

Calgary Herald, December 10, 2009

Last week's Alberta Court of Queen's Bench ruling in Boissoin vs. Lund freed one man from the government's censorship machine, and also diminished the machine's ability to censor citizens' opinions.

The Alberta government's censorship machine is paragraph 3(1)(b) of the Alberta Human Rights Act.

Trying to eliminate offensive expression is dangerous

Karen Selick

Ottawa Citizen, December 3, 2009

Remember Voltaire? He's the 18th-century French philosopher whose views on free speech were summed up as, "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."

No doubt he was in the minds of several lawyers appearing this week in a Calgary courtroom. They don't necessarily agree with what Stephen Boissoin wrote in a letter to the Red Deer Advocate in July, 2002 but they were there defending his right to have written it.