Freedom of Speech

During my time off work there have been rumours as to why I am off. No real surprise there. Everyone loves the latest gossip. For the most part that isn't a big deal. But a team leader approached my roommate in the smoking area to ask how I was doing and another team leader seemed to know more about the situation then was public knowledge. I ended up asking Karen (from HR) how many people were supposed to know why I was off work since, as far as I knew, it was confidential. And I don't appreciate it being discussed in public. She told me it was confidential and raised the possibility that since a couple of people from my team had access to my blog that maybe that is where it was coming from. At the time there were only 5 people from work that even knew I had a blog, including my team leader who is not allowed to say anything. Steve has never even checked it out. Val is not allowed to say anything. And that leaves two people, both on my team. I highly doubt that the team leaders in question found out from either of those people. So I moved all the posts to another blog located here. Whatever happened to freedom of speech though? Why do I feel like I have to censor what I say? When I return to work it's not like people aren't going to ask me why I was off.

Next question... why am I made to feel bad about the whole situation? I feel like I have done something wrong and shouldn't say anything. If they really do think I am suffering from depression then isolating me and not allowing me to talk to anyone is just going to make it worse.

So now we have lies, blackmail and censorship during my time off. I had the blog so that people could find out what was going on and how I was doing. It has been a rough 5 weeks but I have nothing to hide. Until recently I hadn't even mentioned the cutting so the most anyone from work would've got out of it was that the doctor thought I was depressed... how many times I had been to the doctor, what medication I was on, etc. I don't see anything bad about that. It's just honesty. I've got nothing to be ashamed of and there is nothing I want to hide about it. Well okay, I don't want to discuss cutting with my agents... but even then it has been almost 10 months now so it's not an issue.

"Section 2(b) of the Charter states that "Everyone has the following fundamental freedoms: ... freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication."

Freedom of expression is a cornerstone of a functioning democracy. Freedom of expression promotes certain societal values, as noted by Professor Emerson in 1963: "Maintenance of a system of free expression is necessary (1) as assuring individual self-fulfillment, (2) as a means of attaining the truth, (3) as a method of securing participation by the members of the society in social, including political, decision-making, and (4) as maintaining the balance between stability and change in society." Our constitutional commitment to free speech is predicated on the belief that a free society cannot function with coercive legal censorship in the hands of persons supporting one ideology who are motivated to use the power of the censor to suppress opposing viewpoints." (http://www.constitutional-law.net/expression.html)