Human Rights & Free Speech

Council members have selectively applied free speech principles — protecting political speech they agree with while dismissing or discouraging speech they find inconvenient. BCC has residents who are directly impacted by international human rights crises and deserve representation that reflects those realities.

We support unequivocal, consistent application of free speech and human rights principles regardless of who is speaking or what position they hold. No asterisks. No exceptions for politically inconvenient causes.

Human rights are not a foreign policy issue — they are a values issue. A city council that cannot take a clear position on human rights is not a values-neutral body; it is one that has chosen silence as its position.