Sir, – Dr Seamus Taylor is correct to say that clearly defining the concept of “hatred” in the Government’s new hate crime legislation “would provide clarity to all impacted by the law” (“Fears that hate crime Bill will lead to a flood of convictions are unfounded”, Opinion & Analysis, June 13th).
In 1981, the Supreme Court said that the Constitution guarantees every Irish person the right to “walk abroad in the secure knowledge that [he/she] will not be singled out . . . and branded and punished as a criminal unless it has been established beyond reasonable doubt that [he/she] deviated from a clearly prescribed standard of conduct”.
So how is a person to know what standard of conduct amounts to hate speech or hate crime if the concept of “demonstrating hatred” isn’t clearly defined?
The Minister for Justice has said “hatred” doesn’t need to be defined beyond its “ordinary and everyday meaning”. What is this exactly? Does it have to involve a threat of violence? Would foul or abusive language be sufficient? Or would it be enough to express “intense dislike”, which after all is the dictionary definition of the word “hatred”? This would set a very low bar indeed.
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On its website, An Garda Síochána define hate crime as “any criminal offence which is perceived by the victim or any other person to, in whole or in part, be motivated by hostility or prejudice”. In layman’s terms, a crime is a hate crime if the alleged victim or any third party deems it to be so.
This definition is so breathtaking in its scope that any attempt to enforce it would almost certainly be a violation of the Constitution and would not be upheld by the courts. However, this would be cold comfort to those accused of hate speech or hate crime, since the only authority which has the power to detain suspects, question them, and to conduct searches of their homes in advance of any prosecution has publicly stated that this low threshold is all that is required for it to invoke those powers.
The vague provisions in the Bill would grant the Garda Síochána the latitude to maintain this position, which makes it vitally important that this deficiency is addressed. – Yours, etc,
BARRY WALSH,
Clontarf,
Dublin 3.