EDITORIAL: Online censorship bill is a big problem
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It would be great if Canadians could be completely bored and disinterested in Bill C-11. It would be great if the legislation did just what the Trudeau Liberal government is saying it does and nothing else — which is modernizing Canada’s broadcasting regulations for the digital and streaming age.
It doesn’t though. It does more. It paves the way to censor the Internet, empowering the government to be able to regulate, block and censor Canadians’ social media posts.
We’ve known this for well over a year. The federal Liberal legislation was first known as Bill C-10, before last year’s election. Then it was sneakily brought back earlier this year when all the attention was on the freedom convoy and was renamed as Bill C-11.
All along, experts have pointed out the major flaws in this legislation. Most especially, they’ve highlighted how giving the Canadian Radio‑television and Telecommunications Commission, a government agency, power over what they call “user generated content” effectively means that the government will now be able to regulate people’s social media.
This applies to individuals who work full-time as YouTube content creators as well as regular folks who make the occasional TikTok post. It’s alarming. It’s anti-democratic. It shouldn’t be happening.
But it is. In fact, shortly after midnight in the wee hours of Wednesday morning, a House of Commons Committee rammed through Bill C-11 to not allow for amendments that could have stripped the bill of these Orwellian aspects.
University of Ottawa law professor Michael Geist described what happened as “legislative malpractice and democratic betrayal.” He was specifically singling out Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez, who presided over this anti-democratic stunt.
Why are the Liberals so obsessed with censoring the Internet? Why can’t Prime Minister Justin Trudeau do the right thing and listen to the experts and improve this bill?
It’s expected that the bill will pass in the House of Commons with NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh’s support. This means the only measure now left to protect Canadians from this assault on their freedom of speech rights will be the Senate.
This bill is a huge problem. Canadians should be outraged.
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