Jeremy Patrick is a Ph.D. student at York University in Toronto. A legal scholar and former law professor, he has published numerous articles in scholarly journals on civil liberties issues, along with shorter pieces in skeptical magazines like Skeptic, Free Inquiry, and The Humanist. He is currently working on a book-length manuscript about Canada's prohibition of blasphemy.
See also (subject of dissertation, education and some publications):
www.osgoode.yorku.ca/graduate_studies/Patrick_Jeremy.html
Jeremy Patrick talks about blasphemy, 2010-10-01
Photograph : J. Jarry
Blasphemy laws have not disappeared in the wake of secularization as many would have predicted. Instead, blasphemy laws and their modern-day counterparts such as "defamation of religion" or "religious vilification" remain entrenched in many Western legal systems. Indeed, signs point to an increased use of such laws to suppress statements critical of religious beliefs. Why do blasphemy laws still exist in liberal democracies, and are there reliable strategies for removing them?