The Liberal government’s new Bill C-63, the Online Harms Act, is now in first reading. Should it be finally passed, it will “amend the Criminal Code, the Canadian Human Rights Act and An Act respecting the mandatory reporting of Internet child pornography by persons who provide an Internet service and to make consequential and related amendments to other Acts.” The first part of the act is laudable. The second part, however, has nothing to do with protecting children and is cause for concern:
Part 2 amends the Criminal Code to, among other things,
(a) create a hate crime offence of committing an offence under that Act or any other Act of Parliament that is motivated by hatred based on certain factors;
(b) create a recognizance to keep the peace relating to hate propaganda and hate crime offences;
(c) define “hatred” for the purposes of the new offence and the hate propaganda offences; and
(d) increase the maximum sentences for the hate propaganda offences.
It also makes related amendments to other Acts.
Part 3 amends the Canadian Human Rights Act to provide that it is a discriminatory practice to communicate or cause to be communicated hate speech by means of the Internet or any other means of telecommunication in a context in which the hate speech is likely to foment detestation or vilification of an individual or group of individuals on the basis of a prohibited ground of discrimination. It authorizes the Canadian Human Rights Commission to deal with complaints alleging that discriminatory practice and authorizes the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal to inquire into such complaints and order remedies.
Who decides what constitutes hate? And in whose interests? The Trudeau government and its woke arbiters already have a reputation of trampling upon the rights and freedoms of Canadians. This latest legislation establishes huge parameters with plenty of space for possible exploitation by a woke government. Bill C-63 also creates a Digital Safety Commission of Canada.
The potential abuse of this Bill by the Trudeau government to create a “surveillance state” is legitimately worrying. Already, “surveillance cameras made by a sanctioned Chinese tech company, Hikvision,” were “reportedly installed in 50 Quebec cities and public facilities,” as well as in “government facilities”.
Inch by inch, without accountability, the Trudeau government has encroached upon Canadian rights and freedoms. This bill represents a final push to reshape Canada before the election of 2025.
“The online harms bill risks replacing digital anarchy with a surveillance state,” by John Ivison, National Post, February 26, 2024:
John Stuart Mill’s ideas on liberty and the freedom of the individual in the face of state and social control remain as relevant today as when he wrote them in 1859.
Individuals must be free to form opinions and to express those opinions without reservation, short of “making himself a nuisance to other people.”
“Society can, and does, execute its own mandates, and if it issues the wrong mandates … in things with which it ought not to meddle, it practices social tyranny more formidable than many kinds of political oppression,” he wrote in On Liberty, a rejection of the “tyranny of prevailing opinion.”….
The changes to the Criminal Code that create a new hate crime offence, and a new maximum punishment of life in prison for particularly egregious cases of genocide promotion, are reasonable responses to the explosion of hate online.
Canada has a law against displaying hate: Section 319 of the Criminal Code, which says anyone who incites hatred against an identifiable group where incitement is likely to lead to a breach of the peace is committing a crime. The problem is, it is rarely used — just 20 times between 2001 and 2019.
Yet, in recent months, we have seen people glorify terror, promote genocide and lionize murder and rape…….
Rick Smith says
I’m sure they’ll find a way to let Muslims off the hook and use it to target critics of Islam. As Christine rightly pointed out, who gets to decide what is and isn’t hate speech? It’ll be used as a political weapon by one group to marginalize other groups they don’t like.
Additionally although ‘hate speech’ has existed as long as humanity has been around…it was only when the Muslims showed up has this term become weaponized to criminalize any opposition to Islam.
There are already laws on the books to deal with hate which aren’t being enforced. We don’t need new laws to take away our freedoms for the “good of society.” What we need is to clearly identify which groups/ideologies actually preach and incite hate against others and to deal with them.
Apart from neo-Nazis the only other group I’m aware of that incites hatred is Islam, will Lefties ever go after their Muslim buddies?
Or will they do what the UK and some European nations are doing and instead attack people/critics who point out Islam is a religion of hate, violence, supremacism, rape, warfare and conquest?
Rick Smith says
Imagine someone throwing you in jail for speaking truthfully about reality and for defending freedom. Far-Leftism is a sickness as evil as Islam.
At bottom it’s motivated by fear/cowardice…like the cops in the UK, they’re too afraid of the angry/violent Muslim mob, so they silence victims of Islam (like Jews and opponents) instead, thinking they can save their own scrawny necks…even if it means giving Muslims everything they want.
What they don’t realize and cannot see in the future, is that if they promote a dangerous death cult while silencing opposition, is that it has its own plans for all of us once it’s in power. Freedoms will be gone, there will only be the option to covert, live as dhimmis, or face jail, death or explusion.
There is no going back either…you can’t undo a fascist state once you’ve allowed it to take power. They’ll burn all our books on freedom/enlightenment, philosophy, science, other religions, etc…and we’ll all become as barbaric as Iran, Pakistan, Qatar and other Sharia hellholes.
This is the fight of our lives, if the West (freedom) falls, this planet will either slowly die off or become trapped in a fascist nightmare forever (where living becomes pointless-esp. for girls/women) thanks to Islam and its braindead zombie followers.
Now is the time for non-Muslims to unite as a force against Islamification and demand that our politicians criminalize this evil ideology before Muslims increase their population and gain the upper hand…doing nothing will guarantee Islam will win and future generations will be enslaved by this death cult.
Sue says
Truth.
When our current president took office we heard through our media that immediately began construction on a high wall surrounding his property in Delaware. Over these past years I have come to view his action as a vain attempt to protect himself once China and or Islam controls completely our country. You are correct. Islam teaches deceit as a way of gaining control. They will tell us anything to stop us from questioning their planned violence to all of us. I can’t tell you how much I grieve for my country and my people, most especially for my children and grandchildren. I wonder how my children will be able to defend themselves. This especially because groups are constantly seeking to undermine the right we were granted under our constitution to carry weapons to defend ourselves. It’s heartbreaking. If we would just read the Bible, it would be like reading today’s newspaper. And it would, could, be a warning that could open our eyes. But we here in the United States are too fond of circuses and bread.
Sean says
They continue to conflate disagreement with hate, forcing everyone to self-censor. Bleed the freak, by way of legislation.
Strong, perhaps…but not free.
We’re not far behind, due South.
Peter Dale says
The question is: how will the liberals excuse their friends from a charge of hate? And the Bill provides the answer by giving a definition of hate and then by saying that the definition is not necessarily hatred. It’s the context, comrade, that counts as several people who testified before Congress argued.
What surprises me is that Christine did not mention an egregious provision regarding the possibility of someone doing something hateful. She should really have included it because it’s as bad as it gets.
Here is the skinny: If you believe that someone else MIGHT engage in a hateful activity, you can go to the justice department and with their approval, you can have someone hauled into court and put on trial. The Bill also provides that the person charged has no right to know your identity or face you in court. If found guilty of something you have never done, you will be required to pay the accuser $ 20,000 and up to
$ 50,000 to the government. You will also have to pay the legal costs. And also, you face a sentence of life in prison. It does not take any great intelligence to see how activists will use this provision to shut down debate (which, remember, may not have even started) on any subject to which they object.
40 rounds says
The leftist -communists will always get a pass-because, you know, they mean well