50
submitted 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) by rabber@lemmy.ca to c/canada@lemmy.ca

Can this decal get me into actual legal trouble?

In the last 15 years I've been left angry notes, my tires deflated, and I've been keyed. Can someone accuse this as hate speech under the new bill?

I'm sure this is protected under the charter but I just want to say I seriously HATE this hate speech bill. What a load of garbage.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 4 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 20 hours ago)

So, right off the bat, there's the law as it is, and then what people can stretch the law into as you slide towards fascism. On this side of the border I expect rule of law to hold, at least in the medium term. If you were in the US my answer might be very different.

Per the charter you have to target an identifiable group directly, and by past precedent, it seems like you have to specifically incite genocide. A lot of people get away with stopping just short, or even going all the way, but only online or in semi-private. The main successful prosecution I can think of was a guy openly leaving neonazi swastika pamphlets on people's doors.

IANAL, but that specific offence cited is pretty clearly about attacking places of worship. If you drive up on a church lawn and park across the entry walkway you might have a problem. Otherwise, you're just declaring affiliation with a different, hostile religious group, and that's your business. It's like an evangelical with a sticker against praying to saints, basically.

this post was submitted on 27 Mar 2026
50 points (94.6% liked)

Canada

11801 readers
659 users here now

What's going on Canada?



Related Communities


🍁 Meta


🗺️ Provinces / Territories


🏙️ Cities / Local Communities

Sorted alphabetically by city name.


🏒 Sports

Baseball

Basketball

Curling

Hockey

Soccer


💻 Schools / Universities

Sorted by province, then by total full-time enrolment.


💵 Finance, Shopping, Sales


🗣️ Politics


🍁 Social / Culture


Rules

  1. Keep the original title when submitting an article. You can put your own commentary in the body of the post or in the comment section.

Reminder that the rules for lemmy.ca also apply here. See the sidebar on the homepage: lemmy.ca


founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS