Hamas invaded Israel 2023

[daftandbarmy]

What legal threshold would you apply to completely prohibit the entirety of a public protest? The lawfulness of an assembly isn’t dependant on the righteousness of the cause; you can lawfully assemble and protest the absolute dumbest shit. Individuals within a large crowd can commit criminal offences, but it takes a lot for an entire assembly to become unlawful and to fall outside the protections of the Charter- even if what they’re expressing is repugnant.

A protest of a couple thousand people in a major urban centre that assembles, is noisy and disruptive, but is not violent, and then voluntarily disperses in short order is an event with a lot of legal protection. This can absolutely happen notwithstanding that some individuals within the crowd may, eg, express in a way that constitutes wilful promotion of hatred. They can be pursued and dealt with individually.

This always comes back to ‘careful what you wish for’ when you want the state to clamp down on assembly and expression. What ver rules are set today will remain in effect in months and years to come.

Demonstrations are also great for intelligence gathering.... just sayin'

 

[brihard]

Demonstrations are also great for intelligence gathering.... just sayin'

Sure are!

 

[YZT580]

We have our differences Brihard but on this one I come down four square with you.

Regardless of the cause the demonstrations should be allowed. I accept that historically that would have meant pro-Nazi demonstrations in WW2 (they happened anyway - especially in Canada).

We can debate the management of the demonstration and what is acceptable disruption.

(Honk. Honk. )

There is one condition that I would attach and that would be to either forbid entirely or arrest the organizers at the very least for those demonstrations that promote groups that have been declared to be illegal/terrorist. Just as I can be arrested for agitating for armed rebellion so too it should be illegal to foment support for a terrorist organisation. There are numerous examples of young people being mislead into joining or convinced of the righteousness of the group's cause to permit these groups to achieve notoriety via demonstrations.

 

[Brad Sallows]

Demonstrations are also great for intelligence gathering.... just sayin'

Yes. I prefer malcontents to have complete freedom of expression, so that everyone can know them. The malcontents to worry about are the ones we don't know about.

 

[Halifax Tar]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1842949840503779433

 

[brihard]

There is one condition that I would attach and that would be to either forbid entirely or arrest the organizers at the very least for those demonstrations that promote groups that have been declared to be illegal/terrorist. Just as I can be arrested for agitating for armed rebellion so too it should be illegal to foment support for a terrorist organisation. There are numerous examples of young people being mislead into joining or convinced of the righteousness of the group's cause to permit these groups to achieve notoriety via demonstrations.

There are offences for participating or counselling participation in the activities of a terrorist group. It’s a high bar. Do you want that bar to be lowered, and remembering that such law would apply equally?

Terrorism offences also don’t depend on a group being a listed terrorist entity; the conduct itself can hit the threshold without being tied to, say, Hezbollah, Hamas, IS, Atomwaffen etc. But simply expressing support does not, on its own, normally suffice to hit the threshold.

A lot of this stuff is more likely to fall under our handful of hate crimes offences than they are terrorism offences. That has some jurisdictional impact on who investigates and prosecutes. It also means the conduct being criminalized has to do with the identifiable group being acted against, rather than the entity or ideological action that acts are carried out for.

Our laws on all this are multifaceted, have been tested in court a fair bit, and are generally cautious in what conduct they criminalize.

 

[Quirky]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1842949840503779433

No sympathies for gaza or the “innocent” civilians.