Just because we can say something, does that mean we should?
To the Expositor:
Je suis Charlie. It was the statement du jour on social media as a response to a literal attack on freedom of speech following the shooting at Charlie Hebdo, a French satirical weekly magazine. An attack we all understood was meant to deny freedom of speech. On January 7, 2015 two men claiming to be Islamist terrorists killed 11 and injured 11 more at the magazine’s head office in Paris. While we marked the 1 year anniversary of the attack, Charlie Hebdo is in the news again after printing a cartoon that depicts a boy lying face down on a beach while men chase women around with the caption suggesting that drowned refugee Alan Kurdi, should he have grown up, could have become a predator, after refugees raged against women on New Year’s Eve in Cologne, Germany. “Migrants: What would little Aylan have become if he had grown up? A bum groper in Germany.”
Freedom of speech is important to free countries because we all have the right to say what we want without the fear of retribution, I do not propose that censorship be part of our daily experience. Just because we can say things, does that mean we should? What I would suggest is that our moral compass is becoming slightly off true if it is the loudest and most obnoxious speakers that get the most media. Media does not put something on the market unless there is in fact a market for it. That’s the way capitalism works. When Donald Trump is the front runner in an election because he mocks disabled journalists and insults women’s bodily functions to get votes, have we lost our compassion? His supporters say he is just saying what everyone is thinking. Really? I think we know our neighbours better than that.
Do media outlets become outrageous to remain relevant? Do they salivate when an outrageous event takes place because they know their exposure will go up: if it bleeds it leads type thing.
Media has exploded in the last 10 years. We can get answers to any question in a matter of seconds. We can view any situation in just about any country with little to know censorship. However, if there is no market, then there is no interest.
Thankfully, Canadians spoke loud and clear in the last election. We do not accept bullies in our politics or as a definition as to who we are as a society. We do not accept misogyny or cultural intolerance. Freedom of speech in Canada is part of the Canadian framework, cemented in Section 2 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Granted, this freedom is cautioned by libel and defamation.
With the recent publication of Robert Pickton’s memoir it would seem that it might be possible to publish anything. It is not evident whether Pickton wrote the book and somehow sent the manuscript to friend Michael Chilldress to publish or someone else wrote it altogether. Regardless, the publisher must have understood that there was a market for such a work and rather than give up the almighty dollar decided to put it out there. Yes, it has been removed from Amazon now, but how did it get there in the first place? The same can be said for the Charlie Hebdo cartoons. Je le répète, just because we can say something, does that mean we should?
Heather Wilson
Espanola
