Ahenakew hullaballoo
Andrew Potter on an appeals court justice overturning David Ahenakew's conviction on violating hate speech legislation for his surreal anti semitic remarks several years ago. Andrew Coyne has a comment as well. Andrew P. points to a great article about the "real" Ahenakew as well.
Kind of have to agree with the Andrews here... The problem with prosecuting people for their opinions is that you have to bend yourself into a philosophical pretzel in order to "justify" letting them off.
So, you convict a guy for having disgusting opinions. Then, some judge comes along and says that his comments did not form the "requisite intent" for spreading hate, noting that his comments were made spontaneously in response to questions from a reporter. The judge needs to pretend that his intention isn't to spread hate in order to overturn a conviction on a law that shouldn't exist... Not exactly sure what the intention of defending Hitler for "frying" six million people is, aside from spreading hate.
The solution... Don't prosecute the guy. Sure his opinions are disgusting, but let society and public institutions marginalize the guy, not the courts. Then a judge isn't put in the position of having to let this scumbag off the hook.
