Share this Story: When free speech isn't free at all
When free speech isn't free at all
Jerry Agar
George Orwell's Newspeak flourishes in Canada.
"Newspeak", described in Orwell's1984, is a fictional language designed by a totalitarian state to control discussion and ultimately thought.
We see Newspeak in action when the power of the state and societal pressure blunt the ability of people to voice opinions.
Last week many people voiced concern — and some disgust and outrage — that a transgendered woman was placed in a men's jail in Toronto.
As the Toronto Sun reported, "Avery Edison was detained Monday at Pearson International Airport when she tried to enter the country to see her girlfriend, Romy Sugden, of Toronto ... Edison overstayed her student visa on her last visit."
Sugden took exception to the treatment of Edison.
"Speaking with the officials at the prison was a very upsetting and fruitless experience," she said. "They refused to refer to Avery as anything but 'he' or 'him.' They told me because 'his' genitals were male, 'he' would be in a men's prison. That was Ontario law."
This is where Newspeak comes in to play.
How Edison chooses to live is no one else's business, as long as that life is lived within the law.
Overstaying a visa is not within the law, so the denial of entry to Canada was appropriate.
The trouble came when adults, including me, who know the biological difference between males and females, tried to discuss the issue on air and were told we couldn't refer to Edison by any male pronoun.
Some people, and I admit to being one of them, do not like to be bullied into using language that seems contrary to common sense and basic biology.
What has unfortunately developed among many in the media is a fear that if we do not acquiesce to such demands, we may face sanctions from controlling regulators, boards and councils.
I can attest personally to the fact the climate is such that media people are now regularly debating the danger of speaking plainly.
Newstalk1010 Brand Manager Mike Bendixen clarified that for radio and TV, the rule is that so long as the conversation is not hateful, it is acceptable.
Unfortunately, however, we have seen people brought before human rights inquiries because someone else's feelings were hurt.
We've seen human rights commissions force women to accept males in locker rooms and bathrooms, regardless of how that impacts women.
Newspeak in this case demands we show deference to an individual who is biologically male, because "she" has a right to be there, despite having male genitalia.
The Ontario government recently created an internship program in which it limited applications to those who, "self-identify as a black female." The good news for the unemployed is that in our new environment, it appears that could be pretty much anyone, much to the surprise, I am sure, of actual black women.
Transgendered people do not deserve to be mocked. Many of us lack understanding of why they feel the way they do.
But that doesn't mean the rest of us shouldn't be able to have an intelligent conversation about our understanding of the relevant issues, without a referee declaring our thoughts out of bounds.
Newspeak is not free speech. It is not free at all. It is totalitarian.
— Agar hosts the 9 a.m. to noon show on Newstalk1010 and Straight Talk on the Sun News Network
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