I think the reason they corrected you is that usually when that phrase is used, it is referring to US “freedom of speech” where although the law protects you from being arrested or charged for your speech, you can still be ousted from a community or fired (consequences)

However, in Canada, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms permits the government to enforce “reasonable” limited censoring of speech. So, in Canada, we do not have free speech in the same way because we can get arrested for hate speech.

So there is a distinction here. I’m happy to clarify if any of my language was confusing, let me know if this explanation makes sense.

Edit: also in Canada it is not called “freedom of speech”, it is called “freedom of expression”