Section 1 and Section 33 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantee that it's useless in practice.
This was confirmed by how the Charter did nothing to stop the abuses that Canadians endured from 2020 through 2022.
This was confirmed by how the Charter did nothing to stop the abuses that Canadians endured from 2020 through 2022.
Or if its all section 1, do you feel that any country at all has freedom of speech? I can't think of any country that doesn't have something equivalent to section 1, even if only implicitly. Different countries draw the line somewhat differently, but there are none that dont have some sort of similar limited limits to freedom of speech.
But Quebec, for example, has repeatedly invoked Section 33 over the years, including for legislation limiting expression in non-French languages, among other matters.
Any country that imposes limits on expression simply doesn't have free expression. That would include Canada and the US, and like you say, probably most every other country.
As a Canadian, I can't honestly claim to have constitutionally-protected free expression when I know I could be prosecuted merely for expressing certain ideas.