News
Featured Image

LifeSiteNews has been permanently banned on YouTube. Click HERE to sign up to receive emails when we add to our video library.

OTTAWA, Ontario, July 27, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) – A Canadian government ministry has suggested that social media must be censored in the name of democracy. 

According to Blacklock’s Reporter, Canada’s Heritage Ministry produced a June 16 internal note that stated “lawful but offensive” Twitter content “steals and damages lives,” adding it “intimidates and obscures valuable voices,” which prevents “a truly democratic debate.” 

“This content steals and damages lives,” wrote staff in a briefing note according to Blacklock’s Reporter. “It intimidates and obscures valuable voices, preventing a truly democratic debate.” 

“However, social media platforms can also be used to threaten, intimidate, bully and harass people or used to promote racist, anti-Semitic, Islamophobic, misogynist and homophobic views that target communities, put people’s safety at risk and undermine Canada’s social cohesion or democracy.” 

Blacklock’s Reporter noted that the Heritage Department note did not provide any examples of social media posts being used to “bully” certain groups online. It reported also that the note declared that the Heritage Ministry’s goal is to ensure more “accountability and transparency from online platforms while respecting the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.” 

The briefing note was written only days before Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government presented in a new “hate speech” bill that one pundit cited as an “incredibly dangerous” attack on free speech. 

On June 23, the day before Canada’s House of Commons went into recess for summer, Bill C-36 was introduced by Justice Minister David Lametti. Entitled “An Act to amend the Criminal Code and the Canadian Human Rights Act and to make related amendments to another Act (hate propaganda, hate crimes and hate speech),” Bill C-36 threatens the ability of social media users to speak freely. If passed, Bill C-36 would theoretically allow a tribunal to judge anyone accused of online “hate” to be in violation of the new law. If found guilty, the individual could face huge fines as well as house arrest.  

Bill C-36 includes text to amend Canada’s Criminal Code and Human Rights Act to include the definition of “hatred” (“haine” in French) as “the emotion that involves detestation or vilification and that is stronger than dislike or disdain.”   

Conservative opinion writer Spencer Fernando gave a scathing review of Bill C-36 on June 24, saying “With Bill C-10, and now Bill C-36, there can be zero doubt that the Trudeau Liberal government is engaged in an attack on your freedom of expression.”  

According to Fernando, Bill C-36 is “incredibly dangerous, goes against Canada’s values, and must be stopped.”   

“This is the kind of legislation you would expect to see in an anti-democratic, Communist state that is seeking to create wide pretexts to arrest or punish whomever the government feels has ‘stepped out of line’ with the official government message,” opined Fernando.   

Some with Canada’s national police force seem to want the ability to target social media users online.  

A recent Blacklock’s Reporter article says that a specialist with Canada’s national police force, the RCMP, says Bill C-36 if passed would come in handy “as far as our ability to do something about online hate when something needs to be done.” 

Regarding Bill C-36, Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault recently said that “People think that C-10 was controversial. Wait till we table this legislation.”  

Guilbeault’s controversial Bill C-10, or “Act to amend the Broadcasting Act,” has drawn fire for its targeting of user-generated content on social media platform.  

Bill C-10 passed in the early morning hours in Canada’s House of Commons in mid-June, but failed to advance in the Senate on June 29, the last day of debate before the upper chamber closed for the summer.