Dichotomy of Canada's right to free expression (Muslim or First Nation)

I quite regularly have my opinions as do many other of my fellow Canadians, but I am speechless in this situation. Canada has it's Charter of Rights and Freedoms and within it there is a section granting free expression. Within limits - which has come to include hate speech not being tolerated.

Back in February of this year, the French magazine Charlie Hebdo printed some sarcastic caricatures of the Muslim prophet Muhammed. It caused a riot and some deaths in France because of it.

Back here in Canada, Angus Reid conducted a poll for the National Post; about the magazines right to publish the incendiary cartoons. That poll indicated the vast majority of Canadians supported Charlie Hebdo’s right to publish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammed and most prioritised freedom of speech over fear of offending religious sensibilities by a clear 70 per cent.

Now here is the dichotomy

This year also saw a bandwagon of out door concerts and festivals begin to ban the wearing of First Nations headdresses. On the website for Montreal’s Osheaga Music and Arts Festival, beneath the customary rules and regulations was a comprehensive list of items banned from the festival premises, including laser pointers, fireworks, drones and selfie sticks. This year the list — surprise surprise —  contained the addition: traditional First Nations headdresses.

The rule was clear and ironclad. Any attendee who showed up wearing a headdress would have it confiscated upon entry or be asked to leave and return without it.

The First Nations headdress was also much-discussed when a young white woman donned one at the Winnipeg Folk Festival.  A few surreptitious snapshots circulated on social media, arousing a maelstrom of outrage and indignation and within hours, the festival had issued a statement denouncing such gestures of cultural appropriation and insisted that the organisers consider banning headdresses from future events.

“this time of greater awareness”... respect First Nations culture.

The incident effected more substantive change elsewhere, as music festivals across Canada continued to speak out against appropriation and imposed hardline bans. The Edmonton Folk Festival revealed on Facebook that at “this time of greater awareness” it would like its attendees to respect First Nations cultures and to not wear any type of First Nations headdresses during the festival. The Calgary Folk Festival, following Winnipeg’s precedent, publicly implored its patrons to leave headdresses at home but would not officially forbid them.

So in a nutshell, Canada agrees with the public mocking of a religious leader in the name of free speech, and yet demonises free expression from a few young women for enjoying the aethestic beauty (not mocking, not desecrating) of a First Nations Headdress. Both situations concerning religious attitudes and yet both treated very differently.

THE SOFT REALITY

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It is language which avoids, shifts or denies responsibility. It conceals and prevents thought. It makes the unnatural seem natural, bad seem good, the unpleasant seem attractive, the negative seem positive and makes winners out of losers.

A-word	F-word	K-word	P-word	U-word	Z-word
B-word	G-word	L-word	Q-word	V-word
C-word	H-word	M-word	R-word	W-word
D-word	I-word	N-word	S-word	X-word
E-word	J-word	O-word	T-word	Y-word

1-word, Stop!

A euphemism, “the substitution of an indirect or vague term for one considered to be harsh or offensive” and it pretends to communicate but doesn't. 

If you cannot call a spade a spade when you write or speak then don't try. If you cannot say someone died instead of 'passing' don't say it. We are educated to write and read and to put words into a truthful honest narrative. Why are we continuing to 'beat around the bush'. 

When I was a child, I ate black liquorice candies called nigger babies. There I said it. That was then. Of course I would not call the candy that now, but nor should I replace N-word for something that was years and years ago.

Not everything in life needs to be sugar coated, nor should it. 

Hang 'em high or Disavow: the privilege to say, "I am Canadian"

Our Oath:

I swear (or affirm)
That I will be faithful
And bear true allegiance
To Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second
Queen of Canada
Her Heirs and Successors
And that I will faithfully observe
The laws of Canada
And fulfil my duties as a Canadian citizen.

Disrespect to his country

The old ways:

"[Name], in a few short weeks it will be spring. The snows of winter will flow away, the ice will vanish, the air will become soft and balmy.The annual miracle of the years will awaken and come to pass. The rivulet will run its soaring course to the sea. The timid desert flowers will put fourth their tender shoots. The glorious valleys of this imperial domain will blossom as the rose. From every tree top, some wild songster will carol his mating song. Butterflies will sport in the sunshine.

But you will not be their to enjoy it, because I command the sheriff of the county to lead you away to some remote spot, swing you by the neck from a knotting bough of some sturdy oak and let you hang until dead.

And then [Name], I further command that such officers retire quickly from your dangling corpse, that vultures may descend from the heavens upon your filthy body until nothing is left but the bare, bleached bones of a cold-blooded, blood-thirsty, throat-cutting, murdering S.O.B." - Judge Roy Bean.

More civilised:

As pointed out in an interview by the National Post with Defence Minister Jason Kenney.
In addition to terrorism, the law applies to dual nationals convicted of treason and spying for foreign governments, as well as members of armed groups at war against Canada, such as those fighting with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

“This is about respecting the value of Canadian citizenship,” Kenney said in an interview on the weekend.

 “If someone hates Canada so much that they’re prepared to demonstrate violent disloyalty to the country, they forfeit their citizenship. It’s a simple principle.”

He cited the case of former Montreal resident Sami Elabi, who posted a video online from Syria, where he was fighting with al-Qaida. It showed him burning his Canadian passport and then propping it against a wall and shooting it with an assault rifle.

“I think it’s bizarre in the extreme that he should be able to show up at a Canadian embassy … and that we should then be obliged to issue him a new passport and welcome him back to Canada. That’s the position of Mr. Trudeau and Mr. Mulcair. It is an insult to the integrity of Canadian citizenship.”

Do we really need to argue, that a dual citizen who commits Terrorism, Treason, Espionage, and Foreign Military engagement against our country deserves to be able to say "I am Canadian"?