Posted on 03/15/2024 9:04:15 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
We have previously discussed the unrelenting attacks by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his allies on free speech. There has been a steady criminalization of speech, including even jokes and religious speech, in Canada. Now, the Canadian parliament is moving toward a new change that would allow the imposition of life imprisonment on those who post views deemed supportive of genocide. With a growing movement calling Israel’s war in Gaza “genocide,” the potential scope of such a law is readily apparent. That appears to be its very draw for anti-free speech advocates in the country.
The Online Harms Act, or Bill C-63 increases the potential penalties from five years to life imprisonment. It also increases the penalty for the willful promotion of hatred (a dangerously ill-defined crime) from two years to five years. The proposed changes constitute a doubling down on Canada’s commitment to reducing free speech for citizens despite criticism from many in the civil liberties community.
There is also a chilling option for house arrest if a judge believes a defendant “will commit” an offense. In other words, if a judge thinks that a citizen will be undeterred and try to speak freely again.
Justice Minister Arif Virani employed the same hysteria to convince citizens to surrender their freedoms to the government. He expressed how terrified he was with the potential of free speech, stating that he is “terrified of the dangers that lurk on the internet for our children.”
It is not likely to end there.
Today the rationale is genocide. However, once the new penalties are in place, a host of other groups will demand similar treatment for those with opposing views on their own causes.
This law already increased the penalties for anything deemed hateful speech.
The law comes after Canada blocked a Russian dissident from becoming a citizen because of her violation of Russian anti-free speech laws.
In a telling act, the government said that the same conduct (i.e., free speech) could be a crime in Canada.
Indeed, it may now be punished even more harshly.
All politicians will end up in prison for life ?
Arif Virani ? Must be French Canadian
One can hope this will be reversed in the future much like the hope of Trump reversing the Biden agenda.
Well, since y’all have guns you can tell ‘em to F(&* off!
Oh, no, you let them outlaw most guns. Well, mebbe you can get the UN to help out. Look what they did to help Haiti.
So glad I left that awful country. Sad to say USA is headed the same way though.
Did a little digging. The conservative leader running to replace pos Trudeau in Canada is really no better. He’s not even really talking about this latest tyranny. Plus he wants tons of immigrants. We are so screwed in the west. Trump is literally our only hope if any significance.
Another Indian born Troll
Did Uganda throw Arif Virani out ? LOL
Make car theft as convenient as possible for the criminals, but life in prison for a government critic.
But they are not fascists.
I wouldn’t think the avg. Canadian would be ok with this. Mebbe it’s the slow boiling frog thing?
Like, we’re so many brave gene holding Brits killed in wars going back to fighting Napoleon that the gene pool of what was left at home couldn’t hold their empire or even keep enough freedoms at home to be proud?
They learned nothing from their response to the Trucker Fiasco or did they
One terrible thing about a “hate speech” law is that no one can be sure what hate speech is, and what it is not. What could be okay to say today could be a felony tomorrow. It all depends on the whim of some bureaucrat.
We see this happening in the United States. Inadvertently saying the wrong thing won’t get you imprisoned (yet). But it will get you cancelled.
Bye bye to your reputation, and bye bye to your career.
I see a lot of churches in Canada being forced to go underground if this becomes law.
Justin Castro keeps on going
I’m not surprised.
On this issue I think he’d be against it
He’s certainly not being very vocal.
Pre-crime. That used to be the stuff of dystopian speculative fiction novels. How bad could it be? Really, really bad.
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