Justice Minister Arif Virani says the Online Harms Act won’t give the federal government the power to determine what is and isn’t appropriate content.
The bill, tabled by the Liberal government Monday, includes an amendment to define “hatred” in Canada’s Criminal Code. That definition, Virani said, does not include insulting or offensive content, but rather recognized hate speech like calling for genocide.
“People insult groups or people or races or religions all of the time. That’s going to continue to be awful but lawful,” Virani told The Current’s Matt Galloway.
“But when you call for the extermination of a people, you’re hitting a hate standard that’s already been entrenched by the courts.”
From the river to the sea Virani will invent the crime that fits me.
