Hate Speech

One thing I didn't know about hate speech was that there are bans on it in certain countries. I felt kind of silly not realizing it, because obviously not every country is exactly like us, but it still took me by surprise. Especially the fact that Canada has a ban on gay and lesbian speech.
Personally, I think it would be wrong to put limits on our freedom of speech. While it does get out of hand sometimes, hate speech being a great example, it would still be fundamentally wrong since it violates our constitutional rights. Bans on hate speech could lead to people trying to find loop-holes in other people's expressions of opinion by calling it hate speech. And who are we if we can't communicate our ideas and opinions? 
I think the best, most effective way to try to get rid of hate speech would be to put a stigma on it. We, as a whole, react to the opinion of the generalized other. So, if it were a known fact that hate speech was socially disgraceful, I think the amount of hate speech would significantly decrease. However this could not be a small stigma. I believe people would have to demonstrate utter disgust and repulsion for hate speech to really go away.