Anthony Murdoch – One of Canada’s leading pro-freedom constitutional groups warned that the federal government’s Online Harms Act is a dangerous piece of legislation that is not only an “assault” on free speech but will be used to take away “basic rights” by allowing the return of “Kangaroo courts.”
“The Online Harms Act (Bill C-63) is the most aggressive assault against free speech in modern Canadian history,” the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF) posted Monday on X.
“If passed into law, the Act will expose you, along with every other Canadian, to being prosecuted by the Canadian Human Rights Commission over anything you say that someone else might view as ‘hateful.’”
The Online Harms Act was introduced by Justice Minister Arif Virani in the House of Commons in February and has already passed its first reading.
The bill will modify existing laws, amending the Criminal Code as well as the Canadian Human Rights Act, in what the Liberals under Justin Trudeau claim will target certain cases of internet content removal, notably those involving child sexual abuse and pornography.
Details of the new legislation to regulate the internet, however, show the bill could lead to more people jailed for life for “hate crimes” or fined $50,000 and jailed for posts that the government defines as “hate speech” based on gender, race, or other categories.
The JCCF, constitutional groups, lawyers, pro-life groups, and prominent Canadians such as Jordan Peterson have warned the public about Trudeau’s Online Harms Act.
The aforementioned individual and groups have said Trudeau’s new bill is a full-on assault against Canadians’ freedom of speech, which will be severely impacted by the new bill should it become law.
Trudeau’s bill allows for return of Canadian ‘Kangaroo courts’
The Online Harms Act will also amend Canada’s Human Rights Act to put back in place a hate speech provision, specifically, Section 13 of the Act, that the previous Conservative government under Stephen Harper had repealed in 2013 after it was found to have violated one’s freedom of expression.
The JCCF warned that before Section 13 was repealed the last time, “Canada’s quasi-judicial human rights commissions were notorious for trampling on Canadians’ free speech rights.”
“Their kangaroo courts were exempt from the rules of evidence and other legal guardrails that govern real courts in Canada. The conviction rate for those accused of ‘hateful’ speech was close to 100 percent,” the JCCF wrote.
“If the Online Harms Act becomes law, the Canadian Human Rights Commission will not even need to identify a victim of your supposedly ‘hateful’ speech. The Commission will be able to prosecute you on the basis of an anonymous complaint so that you cannot face your accuser, ask questions of your accuser, or even know the name or identity of your accuser.”
The JCCF noted that in an advanced democracy “under the rule of law” a citizen has the right to know “who their accuser is, to face their accuser, and to question their accuser (or to have their lawyer question their accuser).”
However, Trudeau’s Online Harms Act would “take away these basic rights from Canadians and expose every citizen to the risk of a Canadian Human Rights Commission prosecution based on anonymous complaints.”
‘Unelected and unaccountable bureaucrats’ will have insane new powers
In a commentary about Bill C-63, the JCCF noted that unelected and “unaccountable bureaucrats,” most of whom will be “woke and progressive activists,” will decide if your “comment is ‘hateful’ in their subjective view.”
“The Online Harms Act would enable thousands of activists to file human rights complaints against the speech of people they disagree with. Even if many of these complaints are dismissed, good Canadians will still be forced to spend time and money defending themselves. Meanwhile, activists making the complaints will pay nothing. Your next salty YouTube comment or X post could get you hauled before the Canadian Human Rights Commission and ordered to pay tens of thousands of dollars,” the JCCF stated.
When it comes to enforcing the new law, the JCCF warned that the Online Harms Act will give the “Canadian Human Rights Commission teeth again.”
“You could be ordered to pay the federal government $50,000, plus up to $20,000 to a ‘victim’ who felt offended by what you said. This $70,000 maximum does not include any legal costs you may incur to defend yourself,” the JCCF said.
“The complainant, however, would experience no such risk. It costs nothing to make a complaint. If the complaint is dismissed, then the person who filed it is not on the hook for anything.”
The Online Harms Act calls for the creation of a Digital Safety Commission, a digital safety ombudsperson, and the Digital Safety Office.
The ombudsperson and other offices will be charged with dealing with public complaints regarding online content as well as put forth a regulatory function in a five-person panel “appointed by the government.” This panel will monitor internet platform behaviors to hold people “accountable.”
To push back against the Online Harms Act, the JCCF created a petition that calls upon “Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada Arif Virani, and all Parliamentarians, to stop the Online Harms Act.”
The petition, which can be signed here, notes that “No Canadian should face life imprisonment for their expression.”
The Liberals under Trudeau claim Bill C-63 will target certain cases of internet content removal, notably those involving child sexual abuse and pornography.
The reality is that the federal government under Trudeau has gone all in on radical transgender ideology, including the so-called “transitioning” of minors, while at the same time introducing laws that on the surface appear to be about helping children.
Under Trudeau, the federal government has given millions of taxpayer money to fund LGBT groups of various kinds and aggressively pushes a pro-LGBT agenda.
SF Source Lifesite News Mar 2024