Freedom of speech and its restrictions                 

The right to speak our own minds is a powerful right in any country Alas, not all countries adhere to that right. But for the most part, in Westernized countries, that right is rarely curtailed. But the question that crops up is; “Should there be any restrictions at all on our right to free speech?”

Of course there has to be restrictions. For example, you can’t publicly promote treason, murder or genocide and believe it or not, Canada has a law that prohibits blasphemy although I can’t remember anyone in Canada ever being charged with it. If someone was charged, no doubt the charge would be dismissed as it contradicts the Canadian Charter of Rights that protects the right to freedom of speech. Commit blasphemy in Iran however and you will be hanged. But then that country sneers at Westernized nation’s constitutional rights.

People in Canada can publicly insult people, offend people and call them sleazebags, scumbags, filth and/or garbage, a creep and a  bug because the Supreme Court of Canada has stated so, but you cannot accuse them of a crime or a sexual act that is morally and/or legally wrong unless you actually have proof. You could be sued for defamation if you can’t prove such allegations.

What about promoting hatred? The Criminal Code of Canada says a hate crime is committed to intimidate, harm or terrify not only a person, but an entire group of people to which the victim belongs. The victims are targeted for who they are, not because of anything they have done. That form of hatred is not protected by Canada’s Charter of Rights.

                   

But people publicly express hatred towards abortionists and homosexuals but that isn’t a crime unless they promote intimidation, violence or terror towards these people.

What about advocating some sort of violence towards women to achieve one’s purpose?” Is that against the law? It should be and yet there are real creepy people out there who do just that and they make their positions quite clear on the Internet.

I will tell you about one such person. His name is Julien Blane. He is a “dating coach” working for a US company called Real Social Dynamics. Through a program comprising online videos and in-person instructional classes, the company has built a business model which preys on lonely desperate men, offering them the promise of female sexual attention through force when their attention to these men doesn’t exist by their demands. The instruction and promotion of abuse and the total violation of consent is this company’s stock in trade.                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

Julien Blanc has been accused of teaching men how to be sexually abusive and racist in order to attract women. I suppose there are some women who like violence in their relationships with men but most women do not want to associate with such men. And yet, this man promotes racism and violence to those creeps who have such inclinations towards women in general.

In a video  that has amassed over 50,000 views (and has since switched to “private”), he teaches men how to sexually assault women in Japan, where he went to. He says, “Just go through Tokyo, grab girls and put their heads on your dick.” This is what Blanc instructs his audience before showing footage of himself doing just that. This is nothing short of a lesson teaching men how to sexually assault women.

Asian women, consistently hyper-sexualized by western culture, have long been the targets of a predatory, booming sex-tourism industry. White western men travel to Asian countries to sexually exploit women on whom they project their orientalist, racist fetishes. In doing so, Blanc actively instructs men to exploit their white male status to assault women, declaring that “if you’re a white male, you can do what you want to the Asian women.”

Many outraged people in Japan currently have an on-line petition asking the government to kick this man out of Japan. What surprises me is that the Japanese authorities haven’t already done that.   

In Australia, one woman is killed by her own male partner every week. The leading cause of death, (other than disability and ill health) for women aged 15-44  is caused by intimate partner violence. This is what Blanc advocates and he advocated this in Australia until he was booted out of that country.  The Immigration Minister said, “This guy wasn’t putting forward political ideas, he was putting forward abuse that was derogatory to women and that’s just something that are values abhorred in this country.” 

These “pick-up artists” after being taught how to do it by Blanc, hunt women as sport, referring to women as “game”. This is how sexual violence becomes normalized.

Blanc also has a hashtag #ChokingGirlsAroundTheWorld, where he tweets footage of himself doing just that: choking women around the world. This makes me suspect that that former CBC radio host Ghomeshi followed Banc’s suggestions when he allegedly choked some of the women he dated.

Blanc charges between $197 and $497 for various dating 'services' packages. For this hefty sum he has the following guarantee: “Become a true ‘pimp’, with the highest abundance of hot women in the shortest amount of time, or your money back. No questions asked.” Can you believe it? A great many people pay money to listen to this man’s drivel in videos.

In a sweltering Miami afternoon, hundreds of men were sitting in an airless hotel reception room taking notes, hanging on every utterance by the speaker. They’ve paid up to $3000 to be there to learn from the master himself. On the podium at the front wasn’t a religious guru. It wasn’t a business leader imparting the secrets of getting rich. It was a man dressed in jeans and an unironed shirt teaching men what should be the most natural thing of all—how to talk to women. It was Julian Blanc who was their speaker.

Now there is nothing wrong with teaching men how to talk to women. Many men are too embarrassed to approach a woman and institute a conversation with her.

But in actual fact, Blanc also advocates men to abuse women they don’t find attractive and asks men to, “diss fatties and bang (fuck) hotties.”  For Blanc, women exist simply as objects for men to use and abuse.

Blanc is a dangerous sexist, promoting rape and sexual assault, and particularly assaulting women while the men are motivated by racism.

We cannot support the right to free speech for some people if the words uttered or written by them are in conflict with our concept of fairness, justice, decency, safety and protection of others. We must be concerned that such men who are misguided by the ravings of a buffoon are actually following his advice and sexually and physically molesting women. 

The question that must surely be in the minds of Canadians is; “Can a misogynistic sleazebag like Julien Blanc be denied entry into Canada in order to prevent him from speaking at a public gathering?”

The Western Guard Party, a racist organization in Canada in 1979 had distributed cards inviting calls to a Toronto telephone number answered by recorded messages.  The messages, while in part arguably innocuous, also contained statements denigrating the Jewish race and religion.   Complaints about these messages were lodged with the Canadian Human Rights Commission.  The Commission established a tribunal which concluded that the messages constituted a discriminatory practice under section 13 (1)  of the Canadian Human Rights Act and ordered the members of that organization to cease the practice. 

In spite of the order, the members continued their messages and were found in contempt of the order.  The Party was sentenced to a $5,000 fine and John Taylor, the Party's leader, was given one year of imprisonment. The sentence was suspended upon the condition that the appellants obey the Tribunal's cease and desist order.  They and he did not and the suspension of sentence was cancelled. The Party paid its fine and Taylor served his sentence. In 1983, the Canadian Human Rights Commission filed a new application with the Federal Court, alleging that further messages were being transmitted and that these messages also breached the Tribunal's order.  The Commission sought a new order of committal of Taylor and a $5,000 fine against the Party. Relying on the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the appellants argued that s. 13(1) of the Act violated s. 2(b) of the Charter, and that the Tribunal's order was of no effect.  The Federal Court, Trial Division rejected the argument, confirmed the contempt, imposed the fine and made the committal order sought by the Commission. 

The appellants' appeal to the Federal Court of Appeal was dismissed. In 1990, the Canadian Supreme Court finally dealt with this issue. The Supreme Court denied the appeal of the Western Guard Party and that of its leader.

The primary issue in that particular appeal was whether section.13(1), in the Canadian Human Rights Act in so far as it restricts the rights of people in Canada communicating  certain telephone messages, violates the “freedom of expression” as is guaranteed by section 2(b) of  the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms which says;

“Everyone has the following fundamental freedoms: (b) freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication.”

On the surface, it would appear that Julian Blanc if speaking in Canada would be protected by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedom as it refers to freedom of speech which includes the right to express an opinion. 

I am not suggesting that there be a prohibition on the right to speak or to communicate opinions. The issue is will such opinions expressed do harm to anyone?”  It is obvious that to suggest an opinion that women should choked is to do them harm. It would be no different that suggesting an opinion that someone should be raped. Both opinions would be against the law. In London, England, the police have recently charged two men with using the communications network improperly by tweeting offensive messages to a woman. 

Section 246 of the Canadian Criminal Code makes it a criminal offence to choke a person and make that person incapable of resistance. The penalty for that crime can be as much as life in prison.

Since Blanc has advocated the choking of women, and as such it is a crime, he therefore would be ineligible for entry into Canada. But is making such a suggestion that is a mere opinion, grounds to deny him entry into Canada?

Suggesting that men choke women is unacceptable in Canadian society and that any restriction upon the freedom of expression imposed by section 13(1) is not really out of proportion to the objective of suppressing such evil. When the Supreme Court was dealing with the appeal of the Western Guard Party, they arrived at the same conclusion—that advocating racism was also not protected by section 13(1) of the Canadian Human Rights Act.

The avoidance of the propagation of an assault upon women is; in itself, a pressing and substantial concern of a free and democratic society.  To permit a sleazebag like Blanc to enter into Canada so that he can propagate the crime of harassing and choking women is an affront to our sense of decency.

It is self-evident that this kind of outrageous activity proposed by Blanc in his attempts to convey his suggestions under the guise of expressing an opinion; really doesn’t pass the smell test.

  

Preventing a misogynistic bug like Julien Blanc from entering Canada won’t put an end to the practices of other men in Canada who similarly degrade, harass and molest women sexually and physically but at least he won’t embarrass Canada if this bug is not permitted entry into Canada in which he could then spew his filth into the ears of other men who have misguided views on how to treat women. 

There are however some decent people who think that if this bug is permitted to crawl into Canada, they could then show him up as the misogynist that he really is and ridicule him publicly. That is about as foolish as permitting a man to commit rape so that others can see just how wrong it is. Canadian immigration authorities should send this bug a message that tells him not to bother getting onto a plane that will be flying into Canada. We in Canada want this bug near us like we want the flu bug near us. My message to Julien Blanc is; “If you come into Canada Mr. Blanc, a great many decent Canadians will be waiting for you with cans of RAID in their hands.”