‘Not “Sorry”’ | Juno News with host Alexander Brown: A compelling discussion about the ongoing threats to free speech under Prime Minister Mark Carney. A prominent critic of legal progressivism and the managerial state, Prof. Bruce Pardy discusses the shift from legal equality to equity in Canada, where laws are increasingly designed to treat individuals differently to achieve group outcomes. This trend, he argues, undermines the rule of law and creates a hierarchy of rights based on identity rather than individual merit, fostering societal division. Prof. Pardy points to Carney’s past rhetoric, which he believes foreshadowed the invocation of the Emergencies Act during the Ottawa trucker protest and raises concerns about the potential for politically motivated prosecutions under new legislation such as Bill C-9, the Combatting Hate Act, introduced in September 2025, which aims to amend the Criminal Code regarding hate propaganda, hate crimes, and access to religious or cultural spaces. Prof. Pardy warns the bill lowers the threshold for what constitutes “hatred,” leaving it open to subjective interpretation and potentially expanding the policing of online and public discourse. Additionally, the bill’s provisions targeting protests could allow individuals to be prosecuted for creating a “state of fear” without any actual threats of violence, raising alarms about the potential policing of political expression and dissent.
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Free speech under fire
