Slashdot Mirror
Canadian Town Outlaws Online Insults To Police and Officials
Pig Hogger writes: The Canadian town of Granby, Québec, just strengthened its municipal bylaw that prohibits insulting police officers and town officials by extending its "jurisdiction" to online postings. Fines range from $100 to $1,000. The town's mayor said, "In my opinion, if I threaten you via my keyboard, it's as though I am making that threat right in front of you. For me, it's the same thing." Critics worry about the implications for freedom of speech, and wonder why police and officials should get protection an average citizen does not.
eh.
"Freedom in the USA is not the ability to do what you want. It is the ability to stop others from doing what THEY want"
Threats and insults aren't the same thing. What a bunch of idiots, someone should nuke them.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
I hope they made it pretty darned clear what exactly constitutes an "insult". Or is it just "posts I don't like"?
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
Let me be the first to say, the officials in Granby, Québec, suck.
They see their existing privileges and understandably conclude that they are above the plebs.
"For me, it's the same thing". For the rest of us, it's obviously very different. Now shut up and go run your little moon.
*Threats* are already crimes. Opinions are protected by freedom of speech.
Let me be the first to say that the mayor of Granby is an idiot.
Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries, eh!!!
Now go away or I shall insult you a second time... next to the picture of my cat swatting at the mail slot.
"If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid." - Epictetus
Robert Riel, Granby Deputy Mayor, you're a waste of good oxygen and I suggest that you resign so that somebody with more brain power can take over your job. Obviously you're not fit to do the job as you don't possess the intelligence.
Now, as I'm in Germany, what are you going to do about it? Your call asshat.
This is muslim-like mentality - ban saying something we don't like because our feelings are more important than free speech. I wonder if this Canadian town will take this to Muslim extremes where pointing out any moral issues with the officials, or that they are ineffective in their jobs will be seen as a reason to arrest someone.
If the supreme court rules against your law there should be an instant by-election for anyone who voted for the stupid law in question.
Specifically, the police from Granby, Québec in Canada.
"You should never doubt what nobody is sure about." -- Willy Wonka
Town of Granby: you SUCK! That insulting enough for you? OK, you're all probably a bunch of pedophiles and suck your mothers' dicks! Stop trying to emulate Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin, and Mao Tse Tung! Oh, and come and get me, YA TURDS! Do I sound cowed to you?
P.S. - there is no threat implied or expressed in my speech, but an insult, maybe. Earth to Granby. Nobody has a right not to be insulted. Nobody even has a right not to FEEL threatened. For all I know, the boogie man is going to get you. Or me.
By nature, police officers should have a thicker skin than normal citizens when it comes to insults, and they should be trained to deal with them.
However, police officers do need extra protection against real threats.They're more likely to be a target, and they're be more vulnerable than others. And it shouldn't matter which medium is used to threaten a police officer.
The problem is that you're usually offered another lot of idiots to choose from...
Many in this town would claim they are not part of Canada, I'm sure the rest of the country wishes they were not (right now anyway).
That's the page for the public pool dumbass.
I was mislead by Wikipedia.
Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.
Ya hey dere, Dem hosers sure like their Hitler policies eh?
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
How did I know this was Quebec without even reading the summary?
I must be psychic!!
SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
Never take what is offered. If there are no good choices then write one in.
Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears;
I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.
The evil that men do lives after them;
The good is oft interred with their bones;
So let it be with Caesar. The noble Brutus
Hath told you Caesar was ambitious:
If it were so, it was a grievous fault,
And grievously hath Caesar answer'd it.
Here, under leave of Brutus and the rest--
For Brutus is an honourable man;
So are they all, all honourable men--
Come I to speak in Caesar's funeral.
He was my friend, faithful and just to me:
But Brutus says he was ambitious;
And Brutus is an honourable man.
He hath brought many captives home to Rome
Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill:
Did this in Caesar seem ambitious?
When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept:
Ambition should be made of sterner stuff:
Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;
And Brutus is an honourable man.
You all did see that on the Lupercal
I thrice presented him a kingly crown,
Which he did thrice refuse: was this ambition?
Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;
And, sure, he is an honourable man.
I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke,
But here I am to speak what I do know.
No one counts spoiled ballot papers, which is what altering does. If the choices are Idiot A (no) or Idiot B (also no) then spoiling the ballot paper just wasted your time so you may as well have not bothered to travel to the polling station in the first place.
This is what those "if you don't vote how can you expect to have a say" retards don't understand. There's no "None of the above" box that you can choose. Being forced to pick from undesirable choices isn't having your say. It's "you have a choice of this dick or this dick and fuck you if you don't like it"
"Wait. Something's happening. It's opening up! My God, it's full of apricots!"
This is a reaction to the artist whose street art put will likely put her in prison.
http://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/jennifer-pawluck-convicted-of-criminal-harassment-for-image-of-montreal-cop-shot-in-head
In Canada, negative views on minorities, the government, or the police tend to be dealt with harshly. In fact, in Quebec, negative views on the French language itself are dealt with harshly (they went so far as to circumvent Canada's obviously weak free speech laws to prevent any other language from being popularly used in the province). Freedom of speech is limited in our country. :(
They don't have a facebook page yet, they had to pass this law first.
Like Jerry's kids?
Anybody still remember when we used to make fun of China's "human rights" and their Great Firewall of China? Wasn't that nice? It was nice.
You're obviously nucking phutts, but if I understand you correctly, then I agree with you.
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
I thought it was okay as long as I posted the insult in both French and English.
The culture is not "French" in the modern sense, either. Think of pre-revolutionary France, even down to the language.
Well it's a law. insult a policeman on the street and he can give you a +100$ fine (just like article). For a non-tech person, doing the same on the net seems logical. But they don't understand shit about what it implies to apply this law, privacy wise. Other than, wow, almost no Québec bashing on this thread (less than 50%), that's progress!
+1 it's funny because its true
This is how you know you live in a police state.
The alternative is (C) [Your Name Goes Here] Even if you only enter the 'race' long enough to change the conversation, at least you participted, otherwise you're right. Your nonparticipation is unlikely to have much effect.
Which is it? I can see the issue with making threats against people, whether they be public officials or ordinary citizens. But insulting? Why is it not my right to say "Mayor So-and-So is a poopyhead", whether online or right to his face?
Downmodding is the refuge of the weak. Don't downmod, make a better argument!
You guys area all a bunch of idiots!!!
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
This could be fun, actually.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
There are dumb cops everywhere. But here, cops don't make the laws, politicians do. So we have dumb politicians here, too.
Tous les insultes doivent Ãtre affichés en franÃais seulement.
Well then...
Hey! You Granby public pool managers suck at your jobs! You wouldn't know chlorine from liquid nitrogen if you stuck your hand in it! You can't clean hard water scale worth beans!
And your cooking probably sucks, too.
-- I have monkeys in my pants.
I am not supporting secrecy, but I am not surprised by it. All trade agreements piss someone off and kill someone's sacred cash cow. If there were no special interests to protect, you wouldn't need a trade agreement as there would be no, or low, import taxes. These agreements very specifically say stuff like, we are going to stop taxing microchip imports and you will stop taxing rice imports. Needless to say, your microchip producers and their rice farmers get pissed off. These agreements have been hashed out in long and difficult sessions by dedicated staff and their likely net effects on the economy of both nations have been calculated. So of course after going through this processes, the negotiators don't want to deal with local special interests campaigning to insist that their particular trade barrier remain. Basically you have lots of special interests who correctly see a big danger to themselves, while potential winners only see potential gains, the trade agreement can get quickly picked apart piece by piece.
Here's the actual text of the bylaw:
And my attempt at a translation:
So, the municipality of Granby has made it illegal to say "God damn it, mayor" on Facebook. Honestly, even discounting the online portion of this bylaw, I think it's unreasonable. And I suspect many of you agree. But remember, Quebec (and especially some of the smaller towns in Quebec) are much more devoutly Catholic, with over 70% of the province identifying as RC.
It may look like I'm doing nothing, but I'm actively waiting for my problems to go away.
--Scott Adams