Canadian Politics Today

Yes, this is a good reason as to why we should have free speech but not why we do.  The reason why we do is because it works.  More below.

Yes.  The only thing we're leaving out is the utility of this right.  Tribal societies believe themselves to be special, and we are no different.  As such, the rights and mechanics we have evolved in our open, democratic, and economically 'advanced' societies are seen and taught as a point of pride.  Of course we should be proud of these things, but we need to understand why they work so we can continue to improve them.

The utility of this right isn't relevant.  As with all rights, we should be free to do whatever the heck we want as a base starting point, and our actions should be limited by law when what we do infringes on the rights of others.

The entire point & history of all human rights is to protect people from abuses of power by government. This is what our Charter is for, if you look through it.  There's a long history going back millennia even in the West (ie: monarchies) of governments abusing their power, shutting people up they want to silence (like people criticizing the government), throwing people in jail without charge or trial, and generally doing whatever authoritarian stuff they want.  Since the Magna Carta, human rights laws have been created to curtail these government abuses.  ie: 1688 Glorious Revolution, French Revolution, the US Bill of Rights (to protect against tyranny of British monarchy).  People in virtually all developing countries don't have the rights we have because they're controlled by despot leaders.  Luckily western countries rebelled against our tyrant leaders long ago & put in checks against their power in the form of rights.