Re: Canada???s Orwellian online harms Bill

On Mar 5, 2024, Julian wrote on alt.buddha.short.fat.guy
(in article <[email protected]>):

> There’s a way of getting children to eat something they dislike –
> medicine, for example – where you bury the goods in a spoonful of jam.
> Justin Trudeau’s Liberals are trying this method with their Online Harms
> Bill C-63. But it may not go down as well as they hoped.
>
> The stated intent of the Bill is something every decent person supports:
> protecting children from online victimisation. Yet behind this noble aim
> lurks the thought police.
>
> This is no exaggeration. This legislation authorises house arrest and
> electronic tagging for a person considered likely to commit a future
> crime. It’s right there in the text: if a judge believes there are
> reasonable grounds to ‘fear’ a future hate crime, the as of yet innocent
> party can be sentenced to house arrest, complete with electronic
> tagging, mandatory drug testing and communication bans. Failure to
> cooperate nets you an additional year in jail. If that’s not
> establishing a thought police, I don’t know what is.
>
> What is a hate crime? According to the Bill, it is a communication
> expressing ‘detestation or vilification.’ But, clarified the government,
> this is not the same as ‘disdain or dislike,’ or speech that
> ‘discredits, humiliates, hurts or offends.’
>
> Unfortunately, the government didn’t think to include a graduated scheme
> setting out the relative acceptability of the words ‘offend,’ ‘hurt,’
> ‘humiliate,’ ‘discredit,’ ‘dislike,’ ‘disdain,’ ‘detest,’
> and ‘vilify.’
> Under Bill C-63, you can be put away for life for a ‘crime’ whose legal
> existence hangs on the distinction between ‘dislike’ and ‘detest.’
>
> Despite this Trudeau claims to stand against authoritarianism.
>
> The Canadian psychologist and author Jordan Peterson says that under
> Bill C-63, his criminalisation would be a certainty. The legislation
> appears to apply retroactively, meaning you can be hauled up before the
> Human Rights Tribunal for any material you’ve left online, regardless of
> its posting date. Anonymous accusations and secret testimony are
> permitted (at the tribunal’s discretion). Complaints are free to file,
> and an accuser, if successful, can hope to reap up to a $20,000 payout,
> with up to another $50,000 going to the government.
>
> Hold on, you may be thinking, what does all this have to do with
> protecting children online? So far it seems more geared towards
> protecting the Liberal government online. There is in fact a section
> that requires social media companies to establish plans to protect
> users, including children. But if you’re getting your hopes up, prepare
> to have them dashed.
>
> All the social media companies are going be supervised by a brand-new
> government body called the Digital Safety Commission. The Digital Safety
> Commission can, without oversight, require companies to block access to
> anycontent, conduct investigations, hold secret hearings, require the
> companies to hand over specific content, and give all data collected to
> third-party researchers accredited by the Commission. All data. Any
> content. No oversight.
>
> Does that sound crazy? There’s more.
>
> The ostensible purpose of putting the Commission (and not the ordinary
> police) in charge is so that it can act informally and quickly (i.e.
> without a warrant) in situations where material victimising a child
> could spread quickly across the Internet. What that means in effect is
> that the Digital Safety Commission is not accountable and does not have
> to justify its actions. As the Canadian Civil Liberties Association says
> in its sharply worded critique of the Bill, it endows government
> appointees with vast authority ‘to interpret the law, make up new rules,
> enforce them, and then serve as judge, jury and executioner.’
>
> Is it possible, that in the beautiful and once civilized country of
> Canada, leading politicians seriously want to punish people for crimes
> they might (but actually haven’t) committed? Canada already has a law
> that criminalises conspiracy, and another law criminalising threats—so
> we’re not talking about someone who is planning murder or terrorism.
> Then who are we talking about? People who read the wrong websites?
> People who didn’t get vaccinated? People who criticise the government?
> People who go to church and believe certain types of immorality will
> send you to hell?
>
> There’s something Trudeau and his minions don’t seem to realise. With
> the Online Harms Bill, as with the reckless invocation of the
> Emergencies Act and the debanking of protestors, they are making a
> mockery of the rule of law and of the public order they are sworn to uphold.
>
> Jane Stannus

I have added some other groups where people might like to comment.
But if so, please leave in alt.buddha.short.fat.guy as well, since that
is where the thread has originated.

-- 
David Dalton [email protected] https://www.nfld.com/~dalton (home page)
https://www.nfld.com/~dalton/dtales.html Salmon on the Thorns (mystic page)
“And the cart is on a wheel; And the wheel is on a hill;
And the hill is shifting sand; And inside these laws we stand" (Ferron)