Thank god for free speech

Never forget what an invaluable right free speech is

Free speech is one of those things you assume you have until you don’t. Admittedly, I was one of those comfortably oblivious progressives who never thought much about free speech either as a concept or a right until I was well into adulthood. I wasn’t opposed to free speech, but I also saw no reason to defend it passionately. It never occurred to me that free speech would be an issue of concern, until of course it was.

Canadian culture, education, media, and politics simply didn’t focus on the free speech debate in the way Americans (wisely, in my opinion) do. And as a feminist focused (at the time) primarily on the fight against exploitation and abuse in the sex trade and on violence against women more broadly, I was most-often confronted by free speech arguments in defense of pornography.

Those arguments never made sense to me, because clearly pornography is not speech. And while I understand arguments have been made in its defense on the basis of free expression and opposition to censorship, what we are talking about is not a woman’s right to share nude photos of herself, for art or sexual expression or even profit. We are talking about the “right” of primarily men to pay to abuse and exploit another human being (primarily women and minors) and about the “right” of men (pimps, brothel owners, porn moguls) and corporations (OnlyFans, for example) to profit from that exploitation and abuse. Whether or not a woman “chooses” to allow access to her body or to engage in sex acts with others is not the relevant question — she can. But paying a woman (or girl) for the right to access her body, beat her, rape her, call her names, spit on her, injure her, degrade her, or humiliate her is not a protected form of “speech” or expression. We can pretend all we like that we live in a fantasy world where women’s bodies are neutral spaces — a service or product that should be available and accessible to all who offer compensation in exchange for the right to use said body — and that women in the sex trade are there of their own healthy volition, but we all know that isn’t true. We know that using and abusing someone else’s body is not a protected form of speech or expression (or shouldn’t be, in any case). We all know that the sex industry is a multi-billion dollar industry that sees women and girls abused and exploited day in and day out, globally. If you wish to have sex with another consenting adult, go ahead. You just can’t pay them for it, nor can you sell another person’s body to another for your own profit.

ANYWAY. On account of growing up in Canada, surrounded by progressives who were also not particularly empassioned about free speech rights, it wasn’t until relatively recently (within the past decade, I’d say) that I realized what free speech rights were, why we had them, and how important it was to fight for those rights — to never become complacent, to never assume they would always be protected.

As a feminist and (at the time) a socialist who was actively engaged in the women’s movement in Canada, in producing feminist journalism and a feminist podcast, and in speaking in defense of the feminist movement, globally, I began to realize not only how uncommitted most feminists were to free speech, but that many were in fact actively opposed to free speech. The arguments were so blindly hypocritical and naive — essentially that “good” speech should be protected but not “bad” speech — I began to lose respect for the leftist feminists I had worked alongside for some years. How could we demand our speech be protected but not the speech of others? It made no sense.

But moreover, I saw the silencing, censorship, and avoidance of so-called '“bad speech” a weakness on our part. How could I expect to make good arguments, to form intelligent opinions, or to advocate good policy if I didn’t challenge my own views? And how could my own views be challenged if I wouldn’t allow dissenting views to enter my space?

It was around this time that I became a prominent figure in the fight against gender identity ideology and legislation. I was among only a few who spoke out in Canada against Bill C-16, Canada’s gender identity legislation, introduced in 2016 and passed in 2017. I was censored, deplatformed, blacklisted, vilified, ostracized, libelled, sidelined, and famously banned from social media for having done so before it became popular (and monetizable) to do so.

I regret to say that it wasn’t until this point that I really began to understand how dangerous things could become if we don’t have the right to speak out in opposition to popular opinion, government policy, or corporate-sponsored ideology. Trans ideology was adopted by media, politicians, educational institutions, the corporate world, and the left and anyone who failed to toe the line had to be silenced, punished, destroyed, and erased. Those who were early dissenters got the worst of that treatment, and though we are now allowed to correctly sex the trans-identified on X (previously “Twitter”), and though I am now allowed back on the platform, if we haven’t all learned our lesson about how far things can get if dissent is not allowed, I simply don’t know what will do it.

What the gender identity debate — and related censorship — should have shown us is that without free speech we can be forced to lie — telling the truth can be made illegal. I was banned from social media for understanding that men are male and saying so, essentially. I lost work, friends, my safety, and the right to speak in various spaces, including academic institutions, for saying that only women give birth and menstruate, and that it is impossible to change sex. Many more have suffered similar consequences, even to the point of facing fines and prison time for refusing to go along with the trans revolution.

This is crazy. Imagine where else this could go?

Our free speech defenses cannot be limited to our own speech. This is what the left and feminists fail to see. And that terrifies me.

We now see progressives up in arms about the possibility of those who supported Hamas’ attacks on Israel being kept out of schools and jobs, or being otherwise punished, financially and socially. We see leftists claiming things are different now, as “cancel culture” was never serious in the past — never really about advocating for people viewed as guilty of “bad speech” to be fired, never really about “serious ramifications” beyond “being booed” — but now that they are facing attacks on their free speech, things are completely different.

Well, leftists: I am still a free speech absolutist. I still support your right to speak bad speech, even if what it really means supporting your right to refer to a terrorist group as “freedom fighters.” Have your pro-Sharia law speech! Out yourself publicly as someone who believes mass murder is “amazing” and “brilliant.” Call working class Canadians fascists while standing with antisemites. Fight proudly against freedom and constitutional rights one year, then turn around and demand your right to protest the next. I am so glad to know who you are and what you really think. I am so glad for the opportunity to lose all respect for you. I am so glad to know who is a callous, bloodthirsty individual, so blinded by ideology they have lost their humanity. I am so glad to know who would gladly trade democracy for totalitarianism, if on trend that season. I am so glad to know who loves extremism from the comfort of Harvard. I am so glad for the opportunity to support your free speech rights, while you reveal yourselves to be short-sighted hypocrites.

Thank god for free speech.

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I will be part of a panel on the free speech crisis in Canada, alongside Bruce Pardy, Jonathan Kay, and Trish Wood, on Monday, December 4th in Toronto. Get tickets now at: www.lighthouseforum.ca