Canada's Raft of Censorship Bills
None are necessary, all are dangerous to democracy
Yet another bill, C-26, the cybersecurity bill, has been added to the slate of draconian internet censorship bills to subvert our democracy and freedom of expression in Canada. Bills C-11, C-18, C-26 and C-261 should be struck down by the opposition and the Senate. So do any other bills aimed at “misleading political communications” or “online harms”. The federal government’s “expert advisory group” is pushing several bills “addressing harmful content on their platforms and creating a safe online space that protects all Canadians.” But do they really?
C-11 Online Streaming Act
Bill C-11, the Online Streaming Act, has just passed second reading in the Senate. 49 Senators inexplicably voted for it (after not passing Bill C-11’s predecessor Bill C-10) and 19 voted against it at Second Reading on October 25, 2022.
As Senator Housakos says, Bill C-11 is flawed legislation. And it will control what we see online.
Unfortunately the majority of the Senate is not doing its job in ensuring that they are a place of sober second thought just when they are needed the most. That being said please write to your Senators, especially those who voted in favour of Bill C-11 above and also let them know on Twitter that you oppose Bill C-11, before it becomes law.
✍️ And while you are here please sign this petition by Open Media to the Senate about Bill C-11 and this petition from the Conservative Party of Canada.
C-18 Online News Act
Bill C-18, ‘An Act respecting online communications platforms that make news content available to persons in Canada’, has already reached the House of Commons Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage stage having completed Second Reading. The bill will “regulate social media sites that act as intermediaries for Canadian news sites” and grant “exceptional new powers” to the CRTC.
Bill C-18 will also cut out smaller media while rewarding wealthy “broadcast giants such as Bell, Rogers, Shaw, Corus, and the CBC”.
The level of government intervention into the news sector is extraordinary. And the bill violates the basic principles of Canadian copyright law and Canada’s treaty obligations under the Berne Convention.
✍️ And Open Media also has a petition concerning Bill C-18. And an email your MP campaign.
C-26 Cybersecurity
Bill C-26, the cybersecurity bill, ostensibly claims to improve internet safety but it does not contain any public transparency or safeguards. Canadian civil society organizations have found it “deeply problematic” and that Bill C-26 “risks undermining our privacy rights, and the principles of accountable governance and judicial due process which are the fabric of Canadian democracy.”
Judging by Twitter, attention to this issue appears to be a non-partisan concern with articles from all sides of the political spectrum including the National Observer, The Star and the Epoch Times all publishing the same Canadian Press article saying that cybersecurity “legislation is so flawed it would allow authoritarian governments around the world to justify their own repressive laws.” Finally, agreement by the right and the left. 🙏
✍️ Please sign this petition to fix C-26.
Online Harms or Bill C-261
Bill C-261, formerly Bill C-36, is a proposed pre-crime bill that will fine ‘offenders’ (more like victims) up to $70,000 with $20,000 going to reward vexatious complainants. At the same time Marco Mendicino, Minister of Public Safety, is promising to rush through a controversial “online safety” bill, presumably they mean this very strange and harmful Bill C-261.
According to the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms litigation director Jay Cameron talking to True North, “Not only is ‘hate’ not clearly defined in Bill C-36, but it allows a person to be punished and even incarcerated because of something someone imagines that they might say. This is an attack on the presumption of innocence, and is entirely unconstitutional, not to mention frighteningly despotic and totalitarian.”
Even some of the US media is raising the alarm about Canada’s move to censor the internet with The Blaze and The Daily Signal weighing in with concerns. In contrast CTV News is fairly uncritical about the move to censor online content. There are already well established laws against hate speech and exploitation. Why aren’t these being used?
✍️ Please check out this petition on the proposed Online Harms bill.
“Misleading political communications”
Another whole category that may be covered above or may not includes the Liberal government looking at regulating private communications. And censorship advisors are telling Canada’s Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez that “misleading political communications” should be federally regulated. And Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly apparently thinks that it is her job to censor online information. According to the Western Standard she actually said, “My mandate as foreign minister is really to counter propaganda online.”
Censorship of political views is what authoritarians do.
Bill C-27 Digital Charter Implementation Act
Otherwise known as the wordy:
An Act to enact the Consumer Privacy Protection Act, the Personal Information and Data Protection Tribunal Act and the Artificial Intelligence and Data Act and to make consequential and related amendments to other Acts (Digital Charter Implementation Act, 2022)
"A bill with teeth," Bill C-27’s the Commissioner will be granted new powers, and there will be heavy fines, Section 95 (4) “The maximum penalty for all the contraventions in a recommendation taken together is the higher of $10,000,000 and 3% of the organization’s gross global revenue in its financial year before the one in which the penalty is imposed”, which sounds ominous and very similar to the Digital Services Act in Europe that proposes outrageous fines to be levied on social media companies that don’t toe the line on the new EU censorship laws (DSA).
"Unlike the EU’s GDPR, Bill C-27’s CPPA only plays brief lip service to privacy being a fundamental human right in its preamble; Bill C-27 fails to do the more important task of inscribing the privacy rights of people as being more important than the business interests of companies.” according to Open Media.
What will be the ramifications for ordinary people? Anything the authoritarian Liberals push through should be viewed with suspicion as they have shown themselves to be completely against free speech and even are willing to jail and fine people for pre-crimes (Bill C-261) and have already frozen bank accounts and unnecessarily invoked the Emergencies Act.
Authoritarianism used to be the stuff of dictators in far off lands but it is now on our doorstep. People in countries like Iran struggle for freedom but we are rapidly losing ours. It’s a lot easier to maintain freedom than fight to get it back. Many countries have been under dictatorships for decades with no end in sight. Is this the (near) future that we want?
Excellent article on the real reason for C-11. We have enough Canadian content already, it's really about censorship.
https://www.westernstandard.news/opinion/krayden-bill-c-11-soon-to-be-law-another-trudeau-power-grab-for-your-free/article_42fbfc6a-5615-11ed-bf1d-73d9987242d8.html