Debating Free Speech: John Mill Settled This One Already

Now in Pentonville there's all type of nation
Russian, Columbian and Jamaican
Latvian, Croatian and a Polishman
Indian, Chinaman down from Vietnam
And from the Carribbean an Jamaican
Poorly paid people formed the Irish gang
And the Scottish and the Englishman
--Babyshambles

The Canadian political and news atmosphere is about as boring as it gets these days, as the most pressing subject is just how much free speech we need.

It's obvious: We need as much as we can get.... but as usual, there are the self described "censors" that would limit our freedom because of fringe beliefs and ideas of the far-right in Canada. The idea is that by limiting their stage and leaving their ideas unchallenged their beliefs they will lose power and intellectual real estate.

Of course, this BS was already put down with a vengeance by a man coming straight out of Pentonville. Mill stated there are 3 valid arguments for unfettered free speech:

1) The censored opinion may be true and the accepted opinion may be in error

2) Even truth needs to be challenged and tested, else it becomes a dead dogma

3) There is probably some degree of truth in all opinions.

Now, I don't think anyone's going to mistake the Nazis' version of the truth as a superior but somehow unpopular idea that is just currently "out of vogue", and I'm not sure what truth you can derive from the Nazis opinion, but point number #2 is crucial.

Why do we believe the far-right is wrong? If these ideas are never brought to the surface, what opportunity does a free society to completely destroy them in the course of a debate? Yes, let these ideas rise to the surface so we can dismantle them time and again. This is how horrible ideas die: With unfettered battle in the colliseum of public dialogue.
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One question I have for those who would ask that our freedom of speech should be curtailed because some idiots in Alberta get 20 morons together for a Nazi parade in Calgary: Why would you not address a more relevant subject, like the use of the internet for recruitment in an Islamist terror group in Canada?

The answer to this is more interesting than hearing them bleat about irrelevant idiots dressing up with Swastikas and matching black outfits. It's the elephant in the room that they will not address because of fear of where this conversation may go and it speaks volumes that they will not go down this road.

It says almost as much as not addressing the 3 points Mill pointed out 150 years ago.