Compelled Speech Compromises Basic Rights

Employment Minister Patty Hajdu speaks to reporters on Parliament Hill on March 25, 2017. Sarnia Concrete is one of a group of companies that have banded together to launch legal challenges on purely business grounds to the controversial Canada Summer Jobs attestation requirement. The Canadian Press/Justin Tang

In a crucial free speech ruling recently, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed that the constitution in that country prohibits forcing people to say what they don’t believe.

Here in Canada, a young Ottawa lawyer upped the ante recently by filing a Federal Court lawsuit arguing that our Charter of Rights and Freedoms protects the right to believe nothing.