Anti-gay activist challenges Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission’s authority to restrict hate speech
A landmark hate speech case is being debated in the Supreme Court of Canada on Wednesday, pitting an anti-gay pamphleteer from Saskatchewan against defenders of Canada’s restrictions on speech that is considered hateful. Bill Whatcott was convicted of promoting hatred by the Saskatchewan Human Rights Tribunal in 2005 and ordered to pay $17,500 to the complainants after he distributed flyers calling gays sodomites and child molesters. But the ruling was overturned by the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal in 2010, where Whatcott argued his stance was against homosexuality, not gay people. Whatcott’s lawyer will argue that the Supreme Court should strike down the hate speech provisions included in Saskatchewan’s human rights legislation.