"Oh, Canada, glorious and almost free..."
So you would like to split hairs and say that Canada is almost a freedom of speech zone, and therefore should not be linked to Iran and China?
Bogus. Don't tell me that I can't express my viewpoint, unless you wear the label of censorship.
Mark Steyn in Canada faced similar thinking: “In Canada, the official complaint about my own so-called "flagrant Islamophobia"—filed by the Canadian Islamic Congress—attributes to me the following "assertions":
America will be an Islamic Republic by 2040. There will be a break for Muslim prayers during the Super Bowl. There will be a religious police enforcing Islamic norms. The USS Ronald Reagan will be renamed after Osama bin Laden. Females will not be allowed to be cheerleaders. Popular American radio and TV hosts will be replaced by Imams.
In fact, I didn’t "assert" any of these things. They are plot twists I cited in my review of Robert Ferrigno’s novel, Prayers for the Assassin. It’s customary in reviewing novels to cite aspects of the plot. For example, a review of Moby Dick will usually mention the whale. These days, apparently, the Canadian Islamic Congress and the government’s human rights investigators (who have taken up the case) believe that describing the plot of a novel should be illegal.” .
A Dark Day for the Enlightenment by Bruce Bawer, City Journal 20 January 2010
And you want the EU excused as well?
"January 20, 2010—the Dutch establishment’s most serious effort yet against Wilders gets under way, as he is forced to go to criminal court to defend his right to speak his mind. Wilders is, of course, not the first European to face legal action for criticizing Islam; such luminaries as Oriana Fallaci and Brigitte Bardot also appear on that honor roll."
A Dark Day for the Enlightenment by Bruce Bawer, City Journal 20 January 2010
"Italian writer Oriana Fallaci—after writing of the contradiction between Islam and the Western tradition of liberty—was being sued in France, Italy, Switzerland, and most other European jurisdictions by groups who believed her opinions were not merely offensive, but criminal. "
https://www.hillsdale.edu/news/imprimis/archive/issue.asp?year=2008&month=08
And, as for your valient defense, as in "I spend not an inconsiderable amount of time disabusing Canadians that American conservatives are not redneck racists" you might wish to pass this on to your oh-so-enlightened friends:
"On the bright side, Steyn states “It’s a different situation in America, which has the First Amendment and a social consensus that increasingly does not exist in Europe.”
But nowhere is it more evident that Jefferson was correct in stating that the price of liberty is eternal vigilance.
We must be eternally aware of any restrictions on our rights of free speech, whether it be regulation of the internet, of talk radio, or any communication." Ibid.