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OTTAWA, Ontario (LifeSiteNews) – A top cabinet minister from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s inner circle confirmed that the federal government by year’s end will try and bring forth a new version of its much-panned internet censorship bill that would target online speech.

Speaking to the House of Commons Heritage Committee yesterday, Canadian Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez said more details about the new internet censorship bill would be announced “shortly.”

“We have worked a good deal on this issue and we will have more to announce shortly,” he testified.

In December, LifeSiteNews reported how released notes showed Trudeau lamented the fact that social media content is hard to “counter,” leading to speculation that his government’s lapsed web regulation bill from last year may be resurrected.

That bill was known as Bill C-36, introduced in 2021, which critics warned would have censored bloggers and social media users and could have even opened the door to giving police the power to “do something” about online “hate.” This bill lapsed in Parliament after an election was called.

Yesterday, Rodriguez confirmed that most likely a new version of Bill C-36 is in the works. This is although, under Canada’s Criminal Code, hate speech is already a crime.

Asked about more details regarding the forthcoming legislation, Rodriguez said that “we are coming up with something very shortly,” but could not get a specific date.

NDP MP Peter Julian asked Rodriguez if the new bill would be coming in “the fall.”

“It’s not going to be longer than the fall of course, but I can’t give you a specific date,” Rodriguez responded.

Rodriguez about his new bill said that online “hate as you know doesn’t stay online,” adding that it “makes its way into the street. It makes its way into real behaviour,” without explaining what “real behaviour,” meant.

He then claimed that the “internet has allowed for more misinformation and disinformation, more polarization than ever before.”

Rodriguez’s new bill will most likely be a new version of Bill C-36, which could be similar in scope, or have many changes made to it.

The defunct Bill C-36 included text to amend Canada’s Criminal Code and Human Rights Act to define “hatred” broadly as “the emotion that involves detestation or vilification and that is stronger than dislike or disdain (haine).”

The bill would theoretically have allowed a tribunal to judge anyone who has a complaint of online “hate” leveled against them, even if he has not committed a crime. If found guilty, the person would have been subjected to fines of up to $70,000 and could have even been placed under house arrest.

Rodriguez in the past has hinted that a form of Bill C-36 could be coming back.

The Trudeau government has already passed into law one internet censorship bill.

Earlier in May, the Trudeau Liberals passed a first-ever law that will regulate Canada’s internet, Bill C-11. However, the government said there are more laws to come.

In practice, Bill C-11 now mandates that the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) be in charge of regulating online content on platforms such as YouTube and Netflix to ensure that such platforms are promoting content in accordance with a variety of CRTC guidelines.

The bill itself has faced immense criticism for its implications on freedom of speech, to the point that even Big Tech giants YouTube and Apple, which both have a history of enacting their own forms of censorship on users, have previously urged the Senate to stall the bill.

In April, a letter from the Cabinet of Trudeau sent to MPs showed that his Liberal government is “committed” to assigning so-called internet “censors” through a Digital Safety Commission that would police the internet.

Late last year, the Trudeau government decided to fast-track another content-regulation bill, C-18, by rushing it through the House of Commons. This bill is also now before the Senate.

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