Freedom

Freedom of expression is something that is on murky grounds in Canada, and especially, it appears, at Mount Royal University.

Unlike our neighbors to the south, us Canucks don’t have an all-encompassing First Amendment that protects Yanks from the consequences involved with speech infringing on malicious.

Instead, us ‘good-natured’ northerners have to rely on precedents of good behaviour set down by the generations before us. These precedents are likely the reason that Canadians are the only people who are sorry for saying excuse me.

Luckily for Canadians and MRU students who dislike the agreement of pleasantness — the great equalizer, the World Wide Web and more specifically MRU Confessions, allows generally decent human beings to spout hate-speech and innuendo under the wonderful shield of anonymity.

A quick search on the Facebook page shows the type of hurtful drivel that flies through the minds of the underbelly of this fine establishment.

“[#11801] You did it to yourself, now your all by yourself. Bitch” (Grammatical error and all)

Admittedly, someone is obviously hurting over a previous relationship, but has society disintegrated to a point where the only therapy we can socially provide is vitriolic comments to a faceless problem?

November is a month meant for remembering the sacrifices of generations before us, who fought to protect the freedoms afforded to us by our liberal democracy.

This issue of the Reflector features both a commentary piece on MRU Confessions contribution to rape culture written by Nathan Ross, as well as a compelling story by Hannah Cawsey urging generations Y and Z to remember the sacrifices made to support our affluent post-secondary lifestyles.

On the surface, these two stories may appear unconnected, but dig deeper and it becomes clear that we do a disservice to a generation far braver then ours by abusing our right to free speech by posting and spreading hate culture.

MRU Confessions is often championed as a pioneer of free speech on campus, but just because we have the right to a certain behaviour doesn’t mean it’s ethical behaviour. We at the Reflector like to represent the boundaries of social commentary, but the difference between MRU Confessions and ourselves is that we are ultimately responsible for what we publish.

In essence, it is cowardly and an abuse of privilege to incite hate, simply because you have the right to. Understand your freedoms in order to respect them properly.