I've met a number of people (all American, so I infer it's due to some American news sources) that believe Canadians are arrested on a regular basis for flimsy and arbitrary claims of hate speech, and those arrests are political. The same people tend to believe we wait six months and probably die before getting cancer treatment because of our socialized medical system.

So chalk it up to Canada being used in the partisan ratings war that seems to dominate news nowadays.

Like all charter rights, it is weighed in balance with the others and so can be limited.

So, IE, Blasphemous Libel is a thing in Canada.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blasphemous_libel#Canada

Canadian Human Rights Tribunals often produce concerning rulings regarding free speech [1]. I found this case to be particularly concerning even if the "jokes" in question were distasteful. Reminds me of the "Nazi Pug" in the UK [2] which was equally alarming.

[1] https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/mike-ward-comedian-h...

[2] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2018/04...

A somewhat entertaining one is that a business in Quebec cannot have an English-only sign on their business; the sign must have French, and French must be more prominent than English[1]. Zooming out a little bit to the Canadian Charter, there's two significant pieces that are relevant:

- the limitations clause: "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."

- the notwithstanding clause: (too long to paste but here's Wikipeida's summary): "The Parliament of Canada, a provincial legislature or a territorial legislature may declare that one of its laws or part of a law applies temporarily ("notwithstanding") countermanding sections of the Charter, thereby nullifying any judicial review by overriding the Charter protections for a limited period of time"[2]

Basically, we have "freedom of speech", but it's not an absolute right, it's limited by "reasonable limits" (as decided by the courts). Further, even if the courts decide that some kind of provincial law violates the charter, the province can invoke the Notwithstanding Clause and continue enforcing the law. I'd argue that, in general, this all works out pretty well, but it's not really that strong of protection relative to the American Constitution.

[1] https://www.educaloi.qc.ca/en/capsules/language-laws-and-doi...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Section_33_of_the_Canadian_Cha...

Canada does not have Free Speech, not like the Americans do.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_speech_in_Canada

Can't give any because there are Government Agents just waiting to pounce if I do.