Canadian student finds free speech isn’t so free
Ontario teen receives apology from Governor General
Jeremy Patfield, an 8th-grade student in Ontario, was on a class trip to Rideau Hall. While touring the official residence of the Governor General he caught sight of her and posed an indelicate question to his class. The visit was aborted on the spot by the tour guide and Jeremy was later suspended by his school.
“I said, ‘Is that the woman that spends the money on the Queen when she comes?’” Patfield told CTV News.
While the Governor General was within earshot, she didn’t hear the comment. Nevertheless, the remark was not well-received by Rideau Hall staff and a tour guide took swift action to hustle the class out.
When Governor General Adrienne Clarkson heard about the affair she issued an apology through her office. She herself considered it a valid question.
“As a TV interviewer, we were always taught that there are no indecent questions, only indecent answers,” she told CTV News. “And so I would have been prepared to answer that question and I also believe in freedom of speech.”
She added that she was upset when she heard that the class tour had been cut short and would have like to have known about it right away.
Jeremy’s suspension was lifted after a meeting between his father and officials at John Dryden Public School in Whitby (Durham District School Board). He was righteously indignant before his sentence was repealed.
“I was getting in trouble for using a right as a Canadian citizen.”
“Basically, what happened was I was penalized for using freedom of speech and that’s something that we have as Canadian citizens: freedom of speech.”
It’s good to see a student who understands his rights. It’s a shame that the government employees and school officials didn’t.
(Tip credit to Garret)
I wonder if she’ll be concerned about it long enough to raise public awareness.
There’s only one problem with this story. While they may give lip service to the concept, Canada does not have freedom of speech. Their hate speech laws top a long list of speech restrictions that would never fly in the USA, going back to the prior restraint and border seizure of publications like Time magazine because of articles about a prominent criminal trial, back in the 70’s.
I JUST went to Ottawa last week and we went to Rideau Hall and the tour guides were all like dont say anything about the Governor General then our teacher was like, didn’t some student get suspended blah blah blah
WHAT!!!! if u talk bad about governal general you get suspended in school? i hate the queen system and i want Canada to be free and so i always hate these queen- governor stuff. i dont like them. i have freedom of speech. NO one is going to arrest me if i do this in my school.