Päivi Räsänen warns Canada about dangers of 'hate speech' laws.
Päivi Räsänen, the Finnish politician at the centre of a years-long free speech battle, has submitted her testimony to the Canadian Senate Human Rights Committee as the country considers the controversial C-9 bill on “hate speech”.
C-9 has been criticised for weakening protections for free speech on religious questions. Those who make religious statements that might prove controversial will no longer be able to use the legal defence that they spoke in “good faith”.
Räsänen was subject to a seven-year legal process in her native Finland due to a tweet that quoted the Book of Romans on homosexuality, and a decades old pamphlet on sexual ethics. After three criminal trials and a number of acquittals, she was narrowly convicted under hate speech laws for her role in authoring and promoting the pamphlet.
She warned Canada that it should not follow Finland’s example.
“Censorship is one of the greatest existential threats to today’s democracies in Europe," she said. CT.
