No caning is not a punishment for protests and demonstrations; that would be ridiculous as they would lose even the perception of free speech as a fundamental liberty. But generally, such protests and demonstrations have a lot of restrictions in place: they need to take place in a specific location (Hong Lim Park), they need to be pre-arranged, they cannot be religiously sensitive, they cannot be about the political issues of a foreign country, and speeches against politicians are often met with libel lawsuits. The only large-scale protests that happened in recent memory are all about same-sex marriage and LGBT rights.
