PEN Canada: on guard for freedom of expression.

• Author: Normey, Rob
• Position: Special Report: Freedom of Conscience

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"If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear."

--George Orwell, "The Freedom of the Press," 1944

1. What is PEN Canada?

   Pen Canada is the writer's organization that advocates on behalf of writers around the globe facing persecution or imprisonment and on behalf of freedom of expression in various contexts. It is the Canadian chapter of International PEN, founded in England in 1921 to represent "poets, essayists and novelists." Its very first president was the barrister who became a successful playwright and novelist, John Galsworthy. Local chapters began forming in various countries and a PEN centre was first established in Montreal in 1926. In 1983 the English-speaking centre, PEN Canada, moved to Toronto, while the French-speaking centre continues its work in Montreal.

   PEN Canada's Mission Statement reads as follows:

   PEN Canada is a nonpartisan organization of writers that works with others to defend freedom of expression as a basic human right, at home and abroad. PEN Canada promotes literature, fights censorship, helps free persecuted writers from prison, and assists writers living in exile in Canada. PEN Canada is committed to defending freedom of expression and the peaceable expression of such opinion, as guaranteed in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In Canada it supports the right to freedom of expression enshrined in Section 2 (b) of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. So PEN Canada is just one year younger than our Charter of Rights and it will be interesting to consider its activities in the context of the promotion and development of Charter rights and values.

   PEN Canada has over 1200 members and supporters and is described as one of the most active of the 145 centres of International PEN. A major aspect of its work is to support writers who have been forced into silence for writing the truth as they see it. Indeed current President of PEN Canada, Charles Foran, ends his President's Letter by stating that "The writer who can speak is obliged to do so for the one who has been silenced; the author with the freedom must insist that the basic right be upheld elsewhere. We are all in this together."

   The ongoing work of PEN revolves around three established programs: Writers in Prison, Writers in Exile and National Affairs. Anyone wishing detailed information about the activities or about becoming a member (one need not be a writer) can check out: www.pencanada.ca.

   PEN Canada has ceaselessly advocated on behalf of any number of writers, seeking to defend their liberty and even their lives. Campaigns have been launched, for example, for Ken Saro Wiwa, Salman Rushdie and Aung San Suu Kyi. While the situation of writers facing imprisonment is naturally a high priority for PEN, it should be remembered that freedom of expression is a multifaceted right that must be fought for in a variety of contexts. Writers do face censorship in Canada and elsewhere, and PEN, to its credit, defends writers even where this may not be the popular thing to do.

   As this issue of Law Now is devoted to freedom of conscience I would ask the reader to consider that the defence of the fundamental Canadian value of freedom of expression will often encompass matters of freedom of conscience. For instance, a writer offering a criticism of a war she considers unnecessary may well draw on matters of conscience to make her case.

   While a philosophical consideration of freedom of expression is beyond the scope of this article, we in the English-speaking world can continue to cherish the proud tradition of defending free speech that includes John Milton's works. His highly influential 1644 pamphlet Aeropagitica: A speech for the liberty of unlicensed printing to the Parliament of England shines as a beacon in free speech discourse. One of Milton's passionate statements from the pamphlet, "A good book is the precious lifeblood of a master spirit, embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life"--is actually inscribed over the entrance to the Main Reading Room of the New York Public Library.

   George Orwell, that "wintry conscience of a generation" to use the book title of one of his biographers, was just one of the many writers over the decades who have contributed considerable time and effort to PEN's ongoing battles with the foes of freedom of expression. He was inspired in 1946 to write one of his best essays, "The Prevention of Literature," following a PEN Club meeting to mark the tercentenary of Milton's Aeropagitica. The essay gives a fairly insightful summary of the many forces working against the full exercise of the freedom of thought of a writer, beyond active persecution. He perceives clearly the various ways in which unofficial censorship seriously restricts the writer, leading at times to self-censorship. At one point he succinctly gives us his credo...