On Tuesday, October 29, hundreds of protestors swarmed the Toronto Public Library in response to a controversial blogger who was hosting a speaking engagement. Megan Murphy, a self proclaimed feminist, had a sold out talk at the library that evening.
However, Murphy’s views on transgender women have seriously offended the LGBTQ+ community. She argues that womanhood is based on biology and ability to procreate, and that transgender women should not be using the same bathroom, or even participate on the same sports teams.
Members and allies of the LGBTQ+ community protested, saying that the library should not allow a talk about a Charter-protected group to be held. The library has responded by saying that they have to protect the right to free speech.
The protest lasted hours, and a few protesters were able to get into the library and refused to leave. The protest mostly consisted of chanting for recognition of transgender rights, however, violence broke out once Murphy made an appearance. Murphy was discreetly escorted out the back of the library by security after the talk was over.
Here, we see a question of whether the freedom of speech reached its limitation with Murphy’s position. Consider the fact that it was in a public space, where many individuals of the LGBTQ+ community state they should always feel safe to enter. The LGBTQ+ community have stated that freedom of speech is being abused in cases such as this, where it is actually hate speech in disguise. Is this a matter of a right to an opinion? Or should certain views never be given a platform to speak, despite not reaching the formal legal bar of hate speech?
Pride Toronto has cut ties with the library and Toronto Mayor John Tory has expressed disappointment in the Toronto Public Library. At the moment, the booking rules of the library are under review. It will be interesting to see whether the library will continue to permit controversial topics of this nature in the future or not.