Free Republic

Our neighbors to the North continue to be the Ghosts of Legislative Future if we don’t get our act together. During the first session of the 44th parliament, Bloc Québécois party leader Yves-François Blanchet, introduced a private members bill that would remove religious exceptions to the law that criminalizes hate speech. If someone is charged with hate speech in Canada, they can defend themselves in court by arguing they were, in good faith, making an argument based on their religious beliefs. At present, in Canadian Criminal Code, the “religious exemption” in Section 319 states: “No person shall be convicted of...

EDINBURGH University is set to ban Bibles from its student halls of residence amid concern that the Holy Book is “discriminatory” and makes students of other faiths feel unwelcome. The move is the result of protests from the students’ association and is being considered in an effort to pursue a policy of “evenly supporting all faiths”, a university spokesman said yesterday. A Gideon Bible is traditionally placed in every new student’s room at the start of the academic year and there are currently around 2,000 Bibles in the Pollock Halls campus on the edge of Holyrood Park. Their distribution is...