First, I want to thank you for your question, Mr. Champoux.
I'm a staunch supporter of free speech. That's the starting point for my positions. One of the key building blocks of a healthy democracy is free speech. I believe that in the public and legal culture of Quebec and Canada, we have more or less come to a very reasonable position. Free speech exists and must be protected. It's in the Quebec and Canadian charters. However, limits can also be placed on it, as long as they're reasonable in a free and democratic society.
This basic principle must guide any discussion of free speech. This isn't the United States, where free speech is all but completely unrestricted. There are actually some restrictions, but the U.S. concept is very different from Quebec and Canadian legal culture. This is also true in Europe, where some countries are as democratic as ours. They also concede that limits can be imposed on the rights and freedoms that are protected.
Some aspects and symbols are very clearly hateful. As Ms. Kirzner-Roberts mentioned earlier, the Nazi swastika is the most striking symbol. In any case, waving that symbol around is a hateful act unless it's done for educational or artistic purposes, such as a play or film. However, when someone brandishes the swastika, the SS symbol, the Hezbollah flag or the Hamas flag, it's not ambiguous. There is no grey area.
In the discussion we must have, the situation is more complex for some symbols, particularly because they change and fashions come and go, as Mr. Panneton said. For some symbols, however, their meaning couldn't be clearer.