Dilemmas of Free Expression

by Emmett MacFarlane (Editor)

Free expression is under threat. Social media and "fake news," misinformation, and disinformation have prompted governments to propose new forms of regulation that are deeply challenging to free expression. Hate speech, far-right populism, campus speech debates, and censorship consistently make headlines in Canada and abroad. Dilemmas of Free Expression offers forward-looking appraisals of ways to confront challenging moral issues, policy problems, and controversies that pay heed to the fundamental right to free expression. The essays in this volume offer timely analyses of the law, policy, and philosophical challenges, and social repercussions to our understanding of expressive freedom in relation to government obligations and public discourse. Free expression and its limits are multifaceted, deeply complex, inherently values-based, and central to the ability of a society to function. Dilemmas of Free Expression addresses the challenges of limiting free expression across a host of issues through an analyses by leading and emerging voices in a number of disciplines, including political science, law, philosophy, and Indigenous studies.

Genres: Nonfiction

330 pages, Paperback

Published November 8, 2021

About the author

Emmett MacFarlane is a political scientist whose research examines the relationships between rights, governance and public policy, with a particular focus on the Supreme Court of Canada's impact on public policy and political discourse under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

He is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Waterloo. I also teach at UWaterloo's Master of Public Service program.

MacFarlane earned my Ph.D (2009) and MA (2005) in political science at Queen's University, and a BA (2003) at the University of Western Ontario. In 2009-10, he was an Associate of the Canada Program at Harvard's Weatherhead Center for International Affairs. During the 2010-11 academic year, he was a Visiting Researcher at Harvard Law School. In 2011-2012 MacFarlane taught at the University of Victoria.

MacFarlane has published in the International Political Science Review, Supreme Court Law Review, Canadian Journal of Political Science, Review of Constitutional Studies, Canadian Public Administration, and the Queen's Law Journal.