Thank you to the witnesses for joining us today.
I'll be splitting my time with Mr. Erskine-Smith.
Mr. Cameron, I would like to pick up on a couple of comments you made in your presentation.
I take what you're saying about paragraph 2(b) of the charter. Freedom of expression is a fundamental freedom. Section 2 also includes other fundamental freedoms, such as religion and association. Of course, all the rights in the Charter of Rights are read together, and it's oftentimes a balancing of those fundamental freedoms, which can come into conflict. They have to be balanced.
I take issue with the fact that you think we should look at paragraph 2(b) first and that that's the most important and paramount consideration of all the rights. I disagree with that. Also, section 1 of the charter makes it very clear that all of the rights, including the fundamental freedoms, are subject to reasonable limits. The court has ruled on that, and I think it's misleading to say that paragraph 2(b) is the paramount consideration.
Another comment that you made was in your third recommendation, saying that any fine for anything involving hate speech online or whatever, should be capped at the Criminal Code fine for impaired driving, which is $1,000. That's the minimum fine, first of all, and second of all, you can go to jail for impaired driving. It is a serious offence, but of course it depends on all of the circumstances.
Third, you mentioned that the BC Human Rights Tribunal should, in some fashion or another, be promoting your legal services and giving you a platform in order to take on clients. That would help you get the word out there about your organization and what you stand for. I don't think it's the BC Human Rights Tribunal's role, at all, to be promoting any legal services over others.
I want to move, though, to something you said, which was that there's this sentiment out there that disagreeing with someone's point of view is considered hate. You went through a list of them and said “You disagree with that. That's hate.” I don't think that's true. I think the essential point here is that spreading misinformation angers people and riles people up online, and spreading that disinformation turns members of a community against one another. That's the fundamental problem we're seeing with things online that are not true, and they're being propagated by people with insincere motives, and motives that are outside the bounds of civil society, I would suggest.
What I would like to ask you, sir, is, when we see the Toronto van attack or what happened in Christchurch or the Quebec City mosque shooting, does it trouble you that those terrible individuals have been inspired by provocative and hateful content on social media platforms?