On the erosion of free speech in Canada
Well, it is sad to see my country imposing more and more law and regulations on free speech. The complete annihilate of free speech on university campuses are terrifying, but it keeps on crawling on us all, Canadians.
The newly elected government, Prime Minister Trudeau just past a law, Election Law 91 Act, thats says “Elections Act, 91 (1) No person or entity shall, with the intention of affecting the results of an election, make or publish, during the election period, (a) a false statement that a candidate, a prospective candidate, the leader of a political party or a public figure associated with a political party has committed an offence under an Act of Parliament or a regulation made under such an Act—or under an Act of the legislature of a province or a regulation made under such an Act—or has been charged with or is under investigation for such an offence; or (b) a false statement about the citizenship, place of birth, education, professional qualifications or membership in a group or association of a candidate, a prospective candidate, the leader of a political party or a public figure associated with a political party.”
CBC comments are wild. Over 2500 comments in less than a few hours. Many see the insanity, or the ever faster accelerating rate of change towards freedom of speech in this country.
No more wild conspiracies on Trudeau’s birth plac. Nah, this will result in up to 5 years of jail and $50 000 CAD in fines, for a mere tweet, blog post, or Facebook post. Terrifying.
No, you should not lie about things. Or spread misinformation. But what is so bad with this law is that they removed the word “knowingly” of the first draft… which means that anyone in Canada re-tweeting a false news, not knowing that it was false, is culpable and should be thrown off to jail. Great.
As an independent journalist, we are obviously opposed to this kinds of law. It can be made to silence the opposition.
Oh well. Another lost for Canadians. Another step closer to socialist Canada.