This podcast series is an intimate look at one of the most controversial topics in Canadian public discourse at the moment: free expression. The first season includes 11 episodes featuring in-depth interviews with a range of legal academics and experts. Blending academic insight with current affairs, the podcast will appeal to anyone interested in the law of free expression, and especially those wanting to make sense of contemporary politics. The series will address a number of important questions, including: Why is free expression so important for democratic societies? When can a state or community legitimately restrict expression? And why has debate about free expression become so polarized on university campuses and in society more broadly?
In this episode, Dax speaks with Jamie Cameron, an expert on Canadian constitutional law who recently retired from Osgoode Hall Law School after more than three decades of teaching and research. They discuss legal protections for expression, the culture of free expression in Canada, and some important court cases, among other things.
In this episode, Dax speaks with Richard Moon, Professor of Law at the University of Windsor and author of several books about free expression in Canada. They discuss some of the challenges facing free expression at the moment, how approaches to free expression are changing, and what can be done, if anything, to improve public discourse.
In this episode, Dax speaks with James Turk, the Director of the Centre for Free Expression at Toronto Metropolitan University. They discuss the important differences between free expression and academic freedom, why censorship sometimes doesn't work, and what's happening on university campuses, among other things.
In this episode, Dax speaks with Joshua Sealy-Harrington, Assistant Professor in the Lincoln Alexander School of Law at Toronto Metropolitan University. They discuss the uses and abuses of free expression, how free expression is related to the unequal distribution of power in society, and how and why context is important for battles over free expression, among other things.
In this episode, Dax speaks with Faisal Bhabha, Associate Professor at Osgoode Hall Law School. They discuss different approaches to freedom that are consequential for free expression, the relationship between social justice and free expression, and his own academic freedom experience, among other things.
In this episode, Dax speaks with Bruce Pardy, executive director of Rights Probe and Professor of Law at Queen’s University. They discuss the nature and importance of freedom in a democratic society, the legitimacy of legal restrictions on expression, and the relationship between free expression and equality, among other things.
In this episode, Dax speaks with Shannon Dea, Dean of Arts and Professor of Philosophy at the University of Regina. They discuss the contemporary politics of free expression, the nature and importance of academic freedom, and the alleged crisis of free expression on university campuses, among other things.
In this episode, Dax speaks with Ummni Khan, Associate Professor in the Department of Law and Legal Studies at Carleton University. They discuss the subjective nature of expressive harms, the politics and perils of academic freedom, and the potential tensions between anti-oppression and free expression, among other things.
In this episode, Dax speaks with Carissima Mathen, Professor of Law at the University of Ottawa. They discuss the legal and political landscape of free expression at the moment, the challenges of meaningfully regulating online expression, and the future of free expression in Canada.
This bonus episode to wrap up season 1 features a conversation between Richard Moon, Carissima Mathen, and Emily Laidlaw focused on a consistent theme in the podcast: the challenges and complexities associated with online expression. Moderated by Dax, they discuss the problem of “lawful but awful” online expression, potential law and policy responses, and how to create a (digital) public sphere that's safe and accessible. The event was hosted by the Centre for Constitutional Studies on October 17, 2022.
