Do we have a little bunch of RCMP corporals running the First Amendment debate in Canada? That is like what Hitler did by giving German citizens and the police the right to attack and even kill Jews and other “enemies of the country”.
The RCMP was once one of the most respected law enforcement agencies in the world. I hope that this fascist mentality is quickly expunged and exiled to wolf patrol in the mountains of Alberta.
This probably won’t stick, one poorly thought out attempt to use this legislation, and it will quickly find its way to a Supreme Court review that will very likely find it to be bad law, not just unconstitutional even by our standards, but also just badly worded and far too vague and inviting of mischief.
And the leftists who might be rubbing their hands with glee about this bill could quickly find that it cuts both ways, conservatives might be phoning in complaints of their own about the vitriolic hate we face on a regular basis.
The law as worded sounds far too vague to me, having been in court to defend (with some success) against internet libel allegations, I have some idea what the standards are under the law and I can’t see where this really changes much since it exempts most of the more trivial types of defamatory comment anyway.
The government felt under some pressure to do “something” after some misguided kid ran down some Muslim pedestrians in Ontario earlier this year. That case has not been fully prosecuted yet and I don’t know if any defense is planned but obviously the government wants people to think the kid was egged on by internet posts inciting hatred towards Muslims. Nobody knows if that is actually true, or even if he acted under any such motivation.
By the way, I’m quite surprised to read comments on here that seem to assume that all Canadians are socialists, please educate yourselves as to our political spectrum and choices available, it’s really more like the situation in the northeastern states or the west coast, a lot of liberals but some conservatives. If all Canadians were socialists they wouldn’t need legislation like the bill we are discussing here.