Posted by:
Finally Free!
(
)
Date: June 14, 2018 12:01PM
I'm from the US, so I'll admit that I don't have a full understanding of how this law and how it applies to their notion of Free Speech.
That disclaimer said...
According to Wikipedia:
"The law amends the Canadian Human Rights Act by adding "gender identity or expression" as a prohibited ground of discrimination.[7] That makes it illegal to deny services, employment, accommodation and similar benefits to individuals based on their gender identity or gender expression within a federal regulated industry. A person who denies benefits because of the gender identity or gender expression of another person could be liable to provide monetary reimbursement. This prohibition would only apply to matters within federal jurisdiction."
-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Act_to_amend_the_Canadian_Human_Rights_Act_and_the_Criminal_CodeAs far as I can tell based on this, and other sources, this does not in any way make misstating a pronoun an illegal act. It does make gender expression protected under Canada's discrimination laws. To say that "you can be fined and even jailed for using the wrong pronoun" seems like an exaggeration.
However, again, I'm not all that familiar with Canadian Law, but this doesn't sound like Free Speech is impeded at all.
I really would be interested to hear about the laws that are proposed in the US, if there really are any laws that have a shot at becoming law that somehow blocks free speech, I'd be interested to see how they plan on accomplishing that. What I suspect is that there are laws being proposed to make Gender identification a protected class similar to what Canada seems to be doing (similar to how race is a protected class). This seems an obvious extension of existing laws protecting against discrimination based on sex. If that's the case, then I'm all for it.