Legal Research

U.K. Set to Abolish Ancient Hate Crimes

By Simon Fodden

According to a report in the Times, the U.K. Justice Minister has agreed to move to abolish the crimes of sedition and criminal libel.

An act of sedition is one that incites hatred or contempt for the king, government or constitution…

Criminal libel is rare but similarly oppressive. Even though the vast majority of libel actions are brought through the civil courts, crown prosecutors can press charges for criminal libel if it is thought to be in the public interest. The penalty is up to two years in jail and an unlimited fine.

Something is considered defamatory if calculated to expose a person to public hatred, contempt or ridicule and involves publishing something defamatory in writing or any other permanent form.

In Canada sections 59 through 62 of the Criminal Code create and define the offence of sedition, the nub of which is:

s.59(4). . . one shall be presumed to have a seditious intention who

(a) teaches or advocates, or

(b) publishes or circulates any writing that advocates,

the use, without the authority of law, of force as a means of accomplishing a governmental change within Canada.

The offence of blasphemous libel is found in s.296 of the Code; and defamatory libel occupies fully seventeen sections of the Criminal Code, viz. 298 – 317.

Full post as published by Slaw.ca on July 16, 2009 (boomark / email).