Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s new Online Harms Act will allow judges to give life sentences to those who commit speech crimes on social media, as critics slam it as “Orwellian” and an “overreach”. The Mail has more.
The Handmaid’s Tale author Margaret Atwood said the bill was “Lettres de Cachet all over again”, referring to royal diktat for imprisoning citizens made by former Kings of France.
“The possibilities for revenge false accusations and thoughtcrime stuff are sooo inviting!” Atwood warned on X, formerly Twitter. “Trudeau’s Orwellian online harms bill.”
The proposed law, introduced last month by the Liberal Government, gives judges the power to imprison adults for life if they advocate genocide online, up from the previous maximum penalty of five years in prison.
The bill also increases the maximum term in prison from two years to five years for the willful promotion of hatred online.
It also allows a provincial judge to impose house arrest and a fine if there were reasonable grounds to believe a defendant “will commit” an offence.
Conservative writer Stephen Moore called the law “the most shocking of all the totalitarian, illiberal and anti-Enlightenment pieces of legislation that have been introduced in the Western world in decades”.
Justice Minister Arif Virani, who introduced the bill, said, as a father, he was “terrified of the dangers that lurk on the internet for our children”.
He argued that laws exist regulating the safety of toys his kids play with, but not the “screen that is in our children’s faces”.
Sadly, popular opinion backs the censorious legislation, with nearly 70% of Canadians supporting it according to the National Post, despite only 41% saying they believe it will actually make the internet safer for children.
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