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Or sign-in if you have an account.Toronto-based comedian Ben Bankas will play Yuk Yuk's Sudbury at The Daventry Kitchen & Bar on March 9 and 10. SuppliedComedian Ben Bankas started to gain notoriety during the COVID-19 pandemic when he parodied Chief Public Health Officer of Canada Theresa Tam. “You need to fall in line,” he says in one of his viral videos, using an exaggerated Chinese accent. “You need to listen to your woke white neighbour who wear a mask and make her five-year-old child wear a mask even though he don’t understand why. She’s a hero.”Enjoy the latest local, national and international news.Exclusive articles by Conrad Black, Barbara Kay and others. Plus, special edition NP Platformed and First Reading newsletters and virtual events.Unlimited online access to National Post.National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on.Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword.Support local journalism.Enjoy the latest local, national and international news.Exclusive articles by Conrad Black, Barbara Kay and others. Plus, special edition NP Platformed and First Reading newsletters and virtual events.Unlimited online access to National Post.National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on.Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword.Support local journalism.Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.Access articles from across Canada with one account.Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments.Enjoy additional articles per month.Get email updates from your favourite authors.Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.Access articles from across Canada with one accountShare your thoughts and join the conversation in the commentsEnjoy additional articles per monthGet email updates from your favourite authorsSign In or Create an AccountorNext, Bankas took on Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow, again using an over-the-top, Chinese accent, overdubbing real footage. In one video, he mocked Chow’s proposed new tax based on the amount of asphalt and shingles on a property (supposedly to fight flooding), and her support for decriminalizing hard drugs. “Everybody so upset about my new controversial tack where we tack on the rain,” Bankas says in the bit. “In China, it rain cat and dog. Here it rain money. I want to correct the money for all the poor people to buy the fentanyl and the other drug that I am going to slowly make legal as we get rid of all the rich people.” Bankas is not Chinese.This newsletter from NP Comment tackles the topics you care about. (Subscriber-exclusive edition on Fridays)By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc.We encountered an issue signing you up. Please try againCBC responded exactly as expected, calling Bankas’ comedy “hate-filled,” and interviewing comic Ali Hassan, who argued that these bits were “racist” and “punching down.” Whether you agree with CBC and Hassan, it may have been effective social commentary. Chow backed down on her rain tax after Bankas’s mockery.The episode showed the power of comedy. It’s a form of expression where normal rules don’t apply. Comedians can break taboos because, at the end of the day, a joke is just a joke. And yet at the same time, comedy can reveal important truths and potentially take powerful public figures down a peg. Thankfully, comedy is constitutionally protected speech.Or at least it’s supposed to be. Bankas has been cancelled in Sault Ste. Marie, Kitchener, and Thunder Bay, Ontario, as well as Cranbrook, British Columbia.In Nanaimo, B.C., the local government caused the cancellation, meaning they violated the Charter rights of Bankas and everyone who wanted to attend his show. After a single delegate showed up to a Nanaimo City Council meeting in March to demand that the city apply their Respectful Spaces Bylaw to cancel Bankas’ sold-out show, the city council wrote to the city-owned Port Theatre to “request” all performances are “accessible, inclusive, and welcoming.” The Port responded as expected and cancelled the show. We’ve responded by giving Nanaimo our annual Municipal Muzzle Award.According to a majority of the Supreme Court of Canada, edgelord comedy like Bankas’ is constitutionally protected speech. In the 2021 decision Ward v. Quebec, the Supreme Court overturned a Quebec human rights tribunal order that comedian Mike Ward pay money to a famous teenager with a disability for telling jokes about him. Ward told the court the purpose of his comedy was to take on the “sacred cow” Quebec celebrities.As offensive and unkind as some found those jokes, the Supreme Court sided in a 5-4 decision with Ward, finding that the tribunal’s decision violated his Charter right to free expression. This was because, as the court reiterated, there is no right not to be offended in Canada. If the state could limit speech because it’s subjectively “offensive” or causes “emotional harm,” that would mean sanctioning censorship, undermining the very purpose of freedom of expression, the majority wrote. That purpose is “to ensure that everyone can manifest their thoughts, opinions, beliefs, indeed all expressions of the heart and mind, however unpopular, distasteful or contrary to the mainstream.”The freedom to speak even when we may offend is protected precisely because those in power would otherwise use their ability to censor speech to block us from challenging their authority on everything from mask mandates to rain taxes.The city of Nanaimo should apologize to Bankas and his fans and rewrite its Respectful Spaces Bylaw to clarify that it can only be used for actual harassment of specific individuals, not to shut down politically incorrect speech. Other municipalities should take this as notice that if they try to cancel comedy, they may end up in court.Nanaimo received the dubious distinction of the Canadian Constitution Foundation’s Municipal Muzzle Award 2026. Read more in the CCF’s report Canada’s Most Cenorious Bylaws 2026.National PostJosh Dehaas is interim litigation director with the Canadian Constitution Foundation. Join the Conversation This website uses cookies to personalize your content (including ads), and allows us to analyze our traffic. Read more about cookies here. By continuing to use our site, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.