The wall, erected by the Carleton Students for Liberty, encouraged passersby to expr e s s themselves on large sheets of paper set up in the university’s central building. M e s s a g e s ranged from “end the welfare state” to comments of “Gay is OK” and “traditional marriage is awesome.”

In a rambling letter to the Carleton community, Smith defended his “act of forceful resistance” and characterized free speech as a “buzzword.” In a follow-up tweet, he went further to claim “not every opinion is valid, nor deserving of expression.” Luckily, his arguments have failed to be persuasive. Condemnation of Smith, from fellow students to LGBT leaders, has been nearly universal.

Not everything written on Carleton’s free speech wall was friendly to Catholic social teachings. But rather than taking the view, as Smith does, that liberty “is prevented by providing space for … more platitudes,” we must see the benefit that free speech offers to minority opinions.

Yet while most Canadians believe in the virtues of free speech, it is worth repeating why — especially for young Catholics — defending free speech in all its forms is worthy of our time.

From the Quebec Act of 1774, which guaranteed the free practice of the Catholic faith in a Protestant-controlled empire, to the constitutional protections which ensure access to faith-based schools in three of our provinces, Catholics have consistently used the size and commitment of our community to help safeguard our way of life.

But as church attendance drops and secular pressures rise, committed Catholics form an increasingly smaller segment of Canada’s population. If this is the future we face, how should Catholics — and especially young Catholics, who will face an even more difficult situation than we do today — protect their freedoms?

The answer is in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Rather than pretending Catholic values still hold the public support they did decades ago, we must accept our position and seek the protection of Canada’s human rights laws. The Charter is designed to protect our rights to practise and express what we choose. This is why it is particularly important that Catholics, and especially young Catholics, defend free speech at every turn.

Catholic viewpoints may not always be mainstream, but they have a place in our democracy. If free speech loses its legitimacy on campus, the safe space we need to protect our rights and culture as a faith group will disappear. That is why it is particularly important that Catholic students speak out against repressors like Smith. If we fail to stand up for others now, we cannot expect these freedoms to protect us in the future.

(Seidler, 22, is a political science student at the University of Saskatchewan.)