The question is a very good one. Thank you for it. I think this is really an important area to keep in mind.
The courts were very clear that Canada has a unique way of protecting rights. We have freedom of expression, but it's not a paramount freedom. It has to be read with the others, and this is what makes Canada special.
We have section 27, which says we protect multiculturalism. That's an interpretive device. We have section 15, which has four equality guarantees: equality for and under the law, equal benefit and equal protection of the law, and we can't see freedom of expression in isolation.
That even comes up in Bill C-63, for example. There's a portion of that bill that talks about freedom of expression and says that we have to be very careful not to make unreasonable restraints on freedom of expression. It seems to me that this provision should also say we have to be very careful about protecting the equality of the people who are targeted by these hateful or very harmful expressions.
In order to maintain what the Supreme Court of Canada has taught us in a series of freedom of expression cases—that equality is as important as freedom of expression—freedom of expression cannot dominate the other rights. Otherwise, that's when you get these problems of children and women and other marginalized groups, such as indigenous peoples, suffering from their lack of access to the megaphone. They don't have the billions that are invested in media. They don't have the political sway that others do in order to express themselves. That's what's very important, it seems to me.
In my opinion, Bill C-63, although there are some laudable provisions in it, doesn't go far enough.