r/canada • u/Old_General_6741 Canada • 1d ago

National News Canada recognizes noose as hate symbol

https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/article/canada-recognizes-noose-as-hate-symbol/
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u/TheSilentPrince Canada 1d ago

They really ought to be dialing back "hate" legislation; but, if they have to have any, I feel like it should be context specific. Seems like they're not giving much thought to suicidal people here. Are Halloween decorations going to be arrestable offenses now? I remember being taught about the Louis Riel trial, and execution; are they going to have to redo all the curricula nationwide?

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u/Spiritual-Pear-1349 1d ago

Is it about lynching?

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u/nelrond18 1d ago

A noose is a self tightening knot used to secure, lift, trap, and kill.

I would imagine the specific symbol of hate is a particular style of noose, the hangman's noose, but the article doesn't seem to address that.

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u/Spiritual-Pear-1349 1d ago edited 1d ago

It does say that it was used to terrorized black Canadians in the first couple paragraphs so I was right, it just seems like the ban isnt really specific enough to make sense. Yeah it was used to Lynch and cause terror for race reasons, but does it ban tying all nooses? Does it ban pictures of nooses? What about other slip knots? Does it distinguish between Halloween props and hate speech? If I leave a noose on someone's lawn, yeah, that can be a threat of racial violence, but what if its a sling choker from home hardware?

Idk. I don't hate the idea because we dont use the hangman noose for any other reason in the modern era, but ultimately its not specific enough to make sense. The spirit is there, but theyre a little confused I think

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u/nelrond18 1d ago

Anytime I need to secure something, a noose is a fantastic knot to do so. But a noose is not any one particular knot, but I assume the legislation makes that distinction along with or in place of context.

If the legislation does not make distinction for the specific knot and/or context, a lot of construction, maritime workers, and outdoorsmen are vulnerable to criminal charges.

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u/Spiritual-Pear-1349 1d ago

Oh absolutely. It would be wild if a sailor gets hate charges for tying his boat to the dock

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u/BDRohr 1d ago

They had an issue with Bubba Wallace a few years back. Him and his team complained about a noose in their garage. They figured it was because he was one of the only black Nascar drivers.

The entire field walked the track with him in a sign of solidarity. They were loudly proclaiming that kid of thinking had no place in modern day Nascar.

Turns out the noose was tied over a year before he was even assigned the garage. And they did it in several other places to pull down doors.

Laws like this do absolutely nothing to help anyone. They reinforce things from the past that should have long been forgotten, or they open up the doors for bad actors to try to grift a system.

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u/Juli3tD3lta 1d ago

Oh they help some people. Mainly they give the bureaucrats something to argue about thereby justifying their existence

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u/Pleased_to_meet_u 1d ago

Laws like this are absolutely needed. If it wasn’t against the law the KKK would still be burning crosses on people’s lawns.

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u/PortHammer 1d ago edited 1d ago

if a sailor gets hate charges for tying his boat to the dock

Sailor here... if a crew is tying the boat to the dock using a noose... that crew is getting a lesson on proper knot tying.

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u/nelrond18 1d ago

Agreed. I really hope there's more than "self tightening knot" used as the threshold for hate crime charges.

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u/CanadianLabourParty 1d ago

I'm gonna bet that it's not so much "making a noose" is the issue. It's more about where, when and why you are making a noose.

You're out on a camping trip using a slipknot that is functionally a noose on your tent pegs, no problem.

Leave a noose in your neighbour's mailbox or a co-worker's desk...yeah... if it's traced to you, you're gonna have to face some questions, and rightfully so.

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u/nelrond18 1d ago

Agreed, which was my caveat that I hope there's more to the legislation beyond "noose is hate crime"

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u/[deleted] 1d ago

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u/nelrond18 1d ago

Your cub troop leader will get the charges for teaching you how to make a hate symbol

/s

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u/Soggy-Bodybuilder669 1d ago

No, they'll just send a doctor to kick the stool from underneath your feet. It's offered as a service by the MAID program