A request-for-information released this week has spilled the beans on the Liberal government’s internet censorship proposals. Labelled as “government surveillance and censorship powers,” social media giant Twitter compared Trudeau government proposals to dictatorial measures found in China, North Korea and Iran.
Canadian Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez shared the news on Wednesday as he announced a newly formed panel of experts who will advise his office as it drafts the new bill.
Bill C-11, the Online Streaming Act that serves as the government’s follow-up to Bill C-10, was the subject of debate in the House of Commons yesterday as the legislation slowly makes it way through the legislative process. There are still committee hearings to come, but it is readily apparent that many of the concerns that hamstrung Bill C-10 have returned: virtually limitless jurisdictional, overbroad scope, and harmful discoverability provisions. Further, this bill has attracted mounting criticism from Canadian digital-first creators, who note that one of Canada’s biggest cultural exports could be hurt by the bill leading to millions in lost revenues.
Especially troubling:
“The policy direction has two primary goals. First, it will focus on the importance of consultation and special consideration of the needs of equity-seeking groups. Second, the direction will make clear areas where regulation is needed, as well as areas where flexibility should be exercised.”
RCMP commissioner Brenda Lucki urged Canadians to report suspicious Internet behaviour, including comments by people who express “anti-government, anti-law enforcement” opinions.
The Canadian government is promising Bill C-11, which is aimed at regulating online streaming platforms, won’t hurt Canadians’ free speech.
CCF lawyer and spokesperson Christine Van Geyn defends flying the “F*CK TRUDEAU” flag as a fundamental freedom.
“Like every citizen of Canada, Melissa has a Charter-protected right to express her political views. She is flying a flag on her own property, expressing a political sentiment that frankly is not even that uncommon. If her flag bothers some people at Port Colborne city hall, I suggest they drive down a different street instead of trying to tell Melissa what she can and cannot say.”
According to Blacklock’s Reporter, Rodriguez made the comment Tuesday in response to a question about Bill C-10, a sweeping update to Canada’s Broadcasting Act that critics have called an attempt to regulate Canadians publishing content online.
Former Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commissioner Timothy Denton has some very direct words for Canadians regarding our Liberal Government’s proposed Internet Censorship legislation.
Existing laws already give the government the ability to confront hate both online & offline. Power-hungry politicians like Trudeau ignore that reality, in order to ‘justify’ restricting your right to speak freely.
Public health officials and politicians continue to be targeted by the anti-vaccine movement, and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) told Global News that increasingly violent online rhetoric around the “arrest and execution of specific individuals” is a growing cause for concern.
More than a year after a B.C. doctor began circulating a letter declaring the COVID-19 pandemic “over” and speaking at rallies against masks and vaccines, there’s still no resolution to the numerous complaints filed against him.
When it comes to communications regulation, let’s be clear: the election did not give Justin Trudeau’s government a mandate to continue messing with free speech on the Internet.
The Canadian government is considering new rules to regulate how social media platforms moderate potentially harmful user-generated content. Already, the proposed legislation has been criticized by internet scholars — across the political spectrum — as some of the worst in the world.
Immigration is Canada’s most under-analyzed social policy. It’s justification being reduced by government and media to the most simplistic of rationalizations:
Immigration policy exists in response to an aging population. Add to this an aging workforce. Stop the press. An exaggeration this may be, but not one without a point. This specious approach has for decades served to cover-up a plethora of related implications.
British Columbia’s minister of public safety says the province is looking at “all possible options,” including so-called “bubble zones” and injunctions, after COVID-19 vaccine protesters targeted schools in the province’s interior.
