Canada’s new Prime Minister is preparing to resurrect a draconian online censorship bill that died when Trudeau left office, and it’s about to make criminal thought police a reality in the Great White North.
At a Glance
- The new Liberal government in Canada, under Prime Minister Mark Carney, plans to revive the controversial “Online Harms Act,” also known as Bill C-63.
- The bill would create a new government bureaucracy to regulate vaguely defined “harmful content” online.
- Critics warn the bill contains provisions that could criminalize “thoughtcrime,” allowing for house arrest for potential future hate speech.
- The legislation is opposed by a broad coalition of civil liberties groups who say it poses a grave threat to free expression in Canada.
The Return of Draconian Internet Censorship
Just when Canadians thought they might have dodged a bullet, the new Liberal government of Prime Minister Mark Carney is planning to resurrect one of the most dangerous pieces of legislation in recent memory: the so-called “Online Harms Act.” The bill, a pet project of the previous Trudeau government, is a direct assault on the free speech rights of all Canadians, creating a new government bureaucracy with the power to decide what opinions are acceptable to express online.
The conservative legal advocacy group The Democracy Fund (TDF) is sounding the alarm, warning that the government wants to “give itself the power to criminalize and punish online speech and debate.”
A Bureaucracy of Speech Police
The proposed legislation would create an entirely new regulatory body, the Digital Safety Commission, with sweeping powers to monitor online platforms and demand the removal of any content it deems “harmful.” The definition of “harmful content” is deliberately vague, leaving it open to political abuse.
And who will pay for this new army of speech police? The Canadian taxpayer, of course. The Parliamentary Budget Officer has estimated that implementing the bill will cost a staggering $201 million over the next five years.
Criminalizing “Thoughtcrime”
What makes this bill particularly dangerous and dystopian is a provision that would amend the Canadian Human Rights Act to allow a judge to place someone under house arrest if there are “reasonable grounds to fear” they might commit a hate speech offense in the future. This is, quite literally, a “thoughtcrime” provision.
The bill’s radical scope has drawn criticism from across the political spectrum, including from prominent author Margaret Atwood and the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, who have warned of its potential to chill legitimate speech.
(Sigh) I’m too old to be the mother of whatnot and I dislike the label “progressive” because, you know, Eugenics .. once thought to be very “progressive.” https://t.co/qpXbYQqQAH
— Margaret E Atwood (@MargaretAtwood) March 16, 2024
This is not the first time the Canadian government has attempted to control the flow of information online. The previous Online News Act, which tried to force tech companies to pay for news links, resulted in Meta simply blocking news content on its platforms in Canada. The government’s attempts at control consistently backfire, leaving Canadians with less, not more, access to information.
