Cowichan businesswoman Kristi Koons said she’s alarmed and concerned over the fact that she and another two women were asked to leave a town hall featuring federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre on June 10 because of the T-shirts they were wearing.
Koons said she was quiet and respectful at the town hall, which was held at Mellor Hall at the Cowichan Exhibition grounds and attracted more than 1,000 people, before a group of men and RCMP officers approached her and said she was not welcome at the event because of her T-shirt.
Koons’s T-shirt featured half a rainbow pie, with the slogan: “Equal rights for others does not mean fewer rights for you. It’s not pie.”
She said after some discussion, the RCMP respectfully asked her to leave the town hall, as well as two other women at the event that were also wearing T-shirts with slogans that some at the event didn’t like.
“I found it alarming,” Koons said.
“I’m an engaged community member and I often sit at (discussion) tables with people that have many points of view. I work hard to try to bridge the gaps and I have big worries these days about where we’re heading, particularly with what’s going on south of the border.”
Imagine being offended by such a tame message. These people are so fucking fragile.
And they have the RCMP to do their bidding
When Conservatives talk about"free speech" they are referring to hate speech and misinformation.
When Conservatives talk about “Free Speech” we should start shipping them to the states because we don’t have that in Canada.
You mean hate speech. Yes, anyone who whinges about us not having free speech is talking about hate speech and they should be shipped off to the US.
No I mean Free Speech. We do not have that in Canada. We have Freedom of Expression which is limited by law.
But yes, we both agree regardless of how we are saying it they should be shipped south.
Freedom of expression is limited by law?
Freedom of speech is the freedom to voice ones thoughts.
Freedom of expression is the freedom to voice as well as use art and other mediums to channel that expression. Expression is almost always more permissive than speech.
In the US, the first amendment is pretty easy:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
However in the US this freedom of speech has been treated as freedom of expression.
EDIT:
Misunderstanding on my part. Leaving up so everyone can see the egg.
Freedom of expression is limited by law?
Yes. Most Canadians understand this.
I am not sure who you are arguing with but you should probably read the thread before jumping into the pool bud.
I’m not arguing anything I’m trying to understand. Yes I know it’s Canada, so that’s why it’s weird to me (I’m from the U.S.)
The document which governs this in Canada is the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, part of the Constitution Act. The relevant portion is right at the beginning: “The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees the rights and freedoms set out in it subject only to such reasonable limits prescribed by law as can be demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society.” In other words, rights are not absolute, which allows things like laws against hate speech to be passed. Among the rights guaranteed by the Charter is “freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication”. Freedom of speech is a subset of that.
(In fact, even in the US, the right to freedom of speech is not quite absolute, as there are laws against libel and slander.)
Apologies for the misunderstanding! Your comment read a little combative to me, and that was my bad.
Yes, in Canada we have Freedom of expression limited by law which includes speech, art, and any other way one can think to express themselves. Generally speaking the only laws that limit Freedom of Expression are Hate laws, with an unfortunate exception for Religions which will hopefully stop in the future.
It is far more permissive than Free speech. If I am understanding your Constitution correctly I am allowed to say “Fuck the Police” in public, but if I say it on an album or put it on a sign it becomes covered by propaganda laws and most recently anti terrorism laws.
Is that correct? Or can you explain it better to me because I try to keep out of US Civics when they don’t impact me.
nah, you already shipped enough conservative to states that did so much damage to the US. ted cruz, j peterson,etc.
Dont forget the Elongated muskrat.
They’re referring to only hearing what they already think. They want the world to be an echo chamber of their own beleifs.
There was a time when conservative speech didn’t mean lies, hate speech, and misinformation.
There was a time conservatives saw Russia as the threat it is, too.
That time’s just perpetually in the past. Not sure if I should add “/s”
When was that exactly? As far as I can remember, it’s all that its ever been. Trying to scare people into voting against their best interest and pinning folks against each other at the benefit of the rich ruling class. It’s always been like that.
Just dogwhistles for it.
I can’t remember who it was, but some comedian had this really funny bit that stuck with me ever since. It’s the same jist as what your said but their delivery was hilarious to drive home the point. People only hark on about free speech when they’re saying something shitty.
The phrase I heard was, when it comes down to it, free speech absolutists mostly want the freedom to say bigoted shit.
I’m pretty big on free speech, but if there aren’t limits, it gives a platform for terrible people to gather and reinforce each other, which only helps terrible people.
What they really want is freedom from the consequences of saying their shitty opinions out loud.
Big tough Conservatives threatened by women wearing t shirts? Guess they’re even weaker than we thought.
“I’ve had a lot of Conservatives reach out to me and say this isn’t right, but I’m seeing lots of hate and vitriol online as well. The Conservative Party is always talking about how they respect free speech, but we weren’t even allowed to wear our T-shirts. Once again, many of them are finding women’s clothing too distracting. This is against our civil rights.”
Canada’s Conservatives think just like US Republicans, and will take Canada down the same path if they’re given enough power. It boggles my mind that so many Canadians can watch what’s happening in the USA and think “I want that here.”
This is normal for the CPC same thing happened in London Ontario during the last election.
If CPC supporters are contacting her saying this isn’t what this party represents, then they haven’t been paying any attention to what their party has been saying over the last decade. Not that it’s surprising at all, the Reform wing of the CPC simply erased what was left of PC influence in the party over the pandemic. Which is how they’ve been trying to market extreme ideas to moderate voters, by just lying to them.
CPC supporters are contacting her saying this isn’t what this party represents,
They need to pick better leaders for their movement if the current leadership is doing things they oppose.
Or they could choose to stop supporting the party that regularly says and does things they don’t agree with.
CPC supporters are contacting her saying this isn’t what this party represents,
Remember all the US Republicans who said “this isn’t us” and then supported it anyway? I don’t trust these people as long as they continue to identify as Conservative voters. All it means is they know fascism is shameful, but they still want it.
I also like how our centrists have been ineffective as well as theirs, and we can watch in realtime how worthless that stance is when it comes to fighting people who want total submission.
Then again, people also aren’t seeing what’s happening to the south because they’re ignorant.
Yall better get a handle on these goons before you become just like your rowdy southern neighbor.
Canada is always ten years behind American trends
Great! I can’t wait for our Mamdani then!!
Believe me, we’re trying. But they’re just so goddamn stupid!
Believe me, we’re trying.
You and I yeah.
Government? Ehhh. Complacent as Biden ever was.
When your goal is unequal rights that shirt is straight up threat.
A lot of die hard right wingers view life as a zero sum game. It’s why they want to dismantle universal health care.
If the media does not specifically ask every conservative spokesperson that goes in front of a mike whether they consider this message to be incompatible with CPC policies, then I don’t know what the media is for frankly. The CPC made a statement here. Hold them to it.
Who is MIke?
Any Mike
Can already sense PP supporters defending this saying conservative shirts would get them kicked out of left leaning events too. The thing that drives me crazy is that this shirt just says that everyone deserves rights while the “conservative” shirts that would get them kicked out would be hateful messages
Free speech to the CPC = Freedom for me to spout whatever I want without anyone being able to disagree with me, and freedom for me to shut down your speech when it conflicts with my opinion.
The words free and speech are both in there, just not in the way you’d expect. Thats the beauty of marketing with tribal based double think, it’s meaning to them is different based on who is saying it.
I guess they are angry to her showing a t-shirt that doesn’t hide the shape of her body
Depressing. Not surprising.
Also, I want that shirt now.
Conservative town hall… Is that a legit thing? Feels blantly segregational.
I think all that means is a person (eg, MP(P)) from the provincial or federal Conservative party held an open-to-the-public event
Keeping track of the conservatives will make it easy to identify the collaborators when the US invades. Then we can use them for disinformation and honeypots while we work our way through the enemy.
