Canadian Comedian Faces Fine for Facing Down Lesbian Hecklers
A comedian who spoke coarsely to a lesbian at a nightspot in Vancouver says that he was handling a heckler as best he knew how; the woman taking him before a human rights tribunal disagrees, saying that he used discriminatory language.
The case might have consequences how and where the limits of free speech are drawn. The human rights tribunal is set to convene in the next few days and determined whether comedian Guy Earle was within his rights--and the limits of his profession--or whether he did, in fact, violate the rights of Lorna Pardy three years ago.
Pardy's side of the story is that Earle launched into an tirade focused on her and her partner without provocation, but Earle insists that the women had been loud and disruptive, heckling him throughout his comedy set. "When you heckle me and you've been disrespectful through the whole show, I come from the George Carlin school of dealing with a heckler," Earle said, according to a March 28 Canadian Press story. "So yeah, I shoved it down their throat," Earle added.
In addition to heckling him, Earle says, Pardy threw a drink on him--twice. Pardy says that Earle took her sunglasses and destroyed them--to which Earle admits, saying that it was done in the heat of the moment. Even so, Earle says he was within his rights to respond as he did verbally.
"I have the right to be offensive," said Earle. "Because they didn't find it funny doesn't mean they can take me to the human rights tribunal."
"I think there's been an attempt to spin this to say, 'Well he's a comedian so he's cloaked with some kind of special status,' and that's just not the case," said Pardy's lawyer, Devyn Cousineau. "It's not the case about examining a social commentary or jokes that were close to the line or jokes that people would find offensive. This is a case about discriminatory language."
The application of anti-discrimination laws and hate crimes protections in cases of anti-gay speech has become a concern among socially conservative Christians who worry that if they condemn gays, they will be held legally responsible for their own words--or even the violent actions of others, who may take such language as incitement to do harm to GLBT people. Such concerns are purportedly behind a recent vote in the Oklahoma state senate meant to strip gays of federal hate crimes protections there. Because the bill in question cited the wrong passage in the U.S. penal code, however, the Oklahoma state senate actually voted to deprive racial minorities and religious people of similar hate crimes protections, a mistake that will most likely be rectified before the bill goes on to the Oklahoma house.
Canadian laws regarding harassing language and free speech are somewhat different from those in the United States, as conservative pundit Ann Coulter found out recently. Coulter was in Canada to deliver a series of speeches when she told a Muslim student at one university to take a camel instead of traveling by air. When the provost of the University of Ottawa, at which Coulter was scheduled to speak subsequently, sent her a note cautioning her about the differences in Canadian and American law regarding freedom of speech, Coulter accused the university of threatening to prosecute her for "thought crimes." (Canadian jurisprudence, as is the case in America, relies on the criminal justice system and not universities to prosecute criminal behavior.)
Coulter: 'Hate Crime' Victim
"Since arriving in Canada I've been accused of thought crimes, threatened with criminal prosecution for speeches I hadn't yet given and denounced on the floor of the Parliament (which was nice because that one was on my 'bucket list')," Coulter wrote in a March 24 column at Conservative News. "Apparently Canadian law forbids 'promoting hatred against any identifiable group,' which the provost, Francois A. Houle advised me, 'would not only be considered inappropriate, but could in fact lead to criminal charges.'
"I was given no specific examples of what words and phrases I couldn't use," Coulter continued, "but I take it I'm not supposed to say, 'F----you, Francois.' " Coulter went on to declare herself the victim of a hate crime due to Houle's note. In the event, Coulter's appearance had to be canceled due to safety concerns when a mob of students--described by Coulter as "rioting liberals"--became increasingly unruly before Coulter's speech.
Prior to a scheduled appearance by Coulter at the University of Calgary, a March 24 Letter to the Editor run in the Calgary Herald read, "Francois Houle's gentle and elegantly worded advice to Coulter on Canada's very different domestic laws regarding freedom of expression is met with derision, cynicism and scorn. Really, Calgary, don't we all have something better to do on Thursday than listen to some self-promoting extremist talk about media bias and freedom of speech?"
In the United States, street preachers who have intruded upon gay Pride events have been placed under arrest for disturbing the peace and for disobeying the lawful order of police officers. Their true crime, the street preachers say, is declaring the word of the Bible, which, in their view, condemns gays and lesbians.
America's most notorious anti-gay street preachers are the congregation of Westboro Baptist Church, led by the Rev. Fred Phelps, and consisting mostly of Phelps' extended family. The Phelps clan travel around the United States picketing military funerals, gay events, and Jewish places of worship. They carry placards that declare God's hatred for America in general and gays in particular. Though the Phelps clan has faced charges and lawsuits, to date they have relied--mostly successfully--on a freedom of speech defense.
But in Britain, freedom of speech does not excuse any and all harassing conduct, and in recent years a number of stories in which anti-gay Christians faced police investigation due to their anti-gay speech have made the headlines. In some cases, criminal prosecution against anti-gay preachers and others have drawn rebuke not only from Christian organizations, but also from GLBT equality groups, who insist that freedom of speech should be protected for everybody.
Peter Tatchell, who campaigns for GLBT and human rights in the UK, spoke out against a steep fine that an American street preacher was hit with following an anti-gay public session of proselytizing in downtown Glasgow, Scotland.
The American, a man named Shawn Holes, was fined $1,500 for anti-gay speech in which he announced, "Homosexuals are deserving of the wrath of God--and so are all other sinners--and they are going to a place called Hell." But Tatchell, who is well known for his work for GLBT equality, spoke out against the fine, calling it "heavy handed."
"Shawn Holes is obviously homophobic and should not be insulting people with his anti-gay tirades. He should be challenged and people should protest against his intolerance," Tatchell said in a press release. "However, in a democratic, free society it is wrong to prosecute him. Criminalization is not appropriate.
"The price of freedom of speech is that we sometimes have to put up with opinions that are objectionable and offensive," Tatchell continued. "Just as people should have the right to criticize religion, people of faith should have the right to criticize homosexuality. Only incitements to violence should be illegal."
Tatchell went on to call the steep fine "totally disproportionate. Even people who commit robberies and violent assaults sometimes get off with lighter penalties. This prosecution was heavy-handed and an inappropriate use of the law." Continued Tatchell, "If I had known about this prosecution in advance, I would have gone to court to defend Mr. Holes's right to freedom of expression and to urge that the charges against him be dropped. Even though I strongly disagree with his views on homosexuality, if he had decided to appeal against either the conviction or the sentence, I would have supported him."
"I urge the police and prosecuting authorities to concentrate on tackling serious homophobic hate crimes, instead of wasting public money on petty, distasteful homophobic ranters," Tatchell added.