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Comment by yardie | Hacker News Reader

> It also bans communal prayer on public roads and in parks, with the threat of fines of C$1,125 for groups in contravention of the prohibition.

I'm a stoopid American but I thought Canadians enjoyed freedom of speech. Since they remind us they have Charter that protects speech. I'd like to know how they differentiate between public speaking and public prayer?

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>I'm a stoopid American but I thought Canadians enjoyed freedom of speech. Since they remind us they have Charter that protects speech.

American levels of free speech is unrivaled, so to expect it to apply to other liberal democracies with "free speech" is indeed "stoopid American" thinking.

Possibly as an American you haven't seen the prayer protests blocking streets in Montreal and elsewhere yet.

https://www.reddit.com/r/canada/comments/1n3608j/leslie_robe...

https://www.reddit.com/r/canada/comments/1jfbsvl/warmington_...

Note the comments.

It is disingenuous of The Guardian to run an article without posting photos of what everyone is annoyed enough about to make new laws regarding.

Wouldn’t the fix for that be to ban blocking streets, regardless of why you’re doing it?

I don’t think it’s legal to block streets for any reason.

They what’s the purpose of the new law?

Thank you for the Reddit links. Why only men join the prayers?

As a casual observer of Canada it would seem that the average Canadian only has the right to lie down and let their rights get stripped away one at a time…as long as they pay taxes or don’t protest/tweet too hard/mean.

Otherwise they will watch their rights get stripped away from inside a prison cell with their bank accounts promptly closed.

Canada has nothing like the free speech laws the US has. What they have is a cruel illusion of free speech.

We dont have anything. The canadian constitution is a lesson in sounding nice while being mostly useless because there are outs for every clause to allow the government to do what it wants.canadians who think it is good are one of stupid, ignorant, or very politically aligned eith curtent government biases and too stupid, naive, or ignorant to realizes tides turn.

Since this contravenes the UHDR which Canada does subscribe to, it likely won't survive court scrutiny.

> Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.

Its called Quebec. They have their own laws. Quebec is Canada in name only. Its a country within a country. They can even ban Canadian citizens from entering Quebec which in the past they have done so.

Québécois and Canadians only loosely associate with each other.

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