daftandbarmy
Army.ca Dinosaur
- Reaction score
- 31,950
- Points
- 1,160
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'