Saturday's conference was opened by Rev. Schouten of the Canadian Reformed Church at Aldergrove, BC. He noted that a large number of Christians seem to be unwilling to stand up for the Truth and for our God-given rights. He suggested that perhaps this is because we have become too comfortable with ourselves and with society - that we have silenced the prophets ourselves by being unwilling to be confronted with the uncomfortable truth about our own lives. He too challenged the attendees to be steadfast in prayer and action.
Michael Wagner took the podium to discuss whether there are legitimate restrictions to freedom of speech. One of his opening points was on the question of censorship: is censorship - state limitation of the communication of ideas - a good or bad thing? Wagner submitted to the audience that censorship itself is neither good nor bad; the question should be: what kind of censorship is good, and what kind is bad? He also rebutted the recent complaints of supporters of film makers that government plans to discontinue funding for Canadian-made films amount to censorship. Not funding something does not mean one is preventing communication.
Wagner proceeded to list several examples of good censorship, such as defamation - whether spoken (slander) or written (libel) - and communication that is subversive to the political order. Finally, he described how the language and philosophy of freedom of communication have changed. The original philosophy - freedom of speech and freedom of the press - was purposeful: to give citizens information to make informed decisions, and to support a search for truth. Of course, in the framework of moral relativism, the concept of truth - and this purpose by extension - have been eliminated. The language has also changed; many people now speak of the vague concept of freedom of expression - a concept that lends itself much more easily to feelings than morals.
Connie Fournier then told her story. She and her husband Mark are the creators and moderators of the largest forum for conservatives in Canada, FreeDominion.ca. They were subject to an investigation at the hands of the so-called Canadian Human Rights Commission. The cause for complaint was not even something hosted at the site - the offensive material was posted elsewhere, and a link to it was posted on the forum. This complaint was eventually dropped, but the process - enormous losses of time and legal fees - was punishment enough. To protect the participants in the forum - the move does not protect the Fourniers - they recently sold the forum to a company in Panama whose corporate mission is:
To buy websites from individuals and corporations living in countries where free speech is under attack, and protect those websites from being shut down or seized by oppressive governments.It is a telling sign of the state of liberal democracy in Canada.
