The ability to speak freely faces yet another horrifying attack.
A new bill out of Canada is threatening sentences up to life in prison, something traditionally preserved for manslaughter or murder, for those found guilty of “hate” crimes.
This is not satire. This is real life 1984.
Proposed bill C-63 says:
“Everyone who commits an offense under this act or any other act of Parliament, if the commission of the offense is motivated by hatred based on race, national or ethnic origin, language, color, religion, sex, age, mental or physical disability, sexual orientation or gender identity or expression, is guilty of an indictable offense and liable to imprisonment for life.”
It gets worse.
The new bill bribes citizens to snitch on their fellow Canadians.
“It [C-63 bill] allows someone to make a complaint of a discrimination anonymously … if that hateful complaint is found legit, a maximum of 20,000 [Canadian] dollars goes to that person.”
It’s not hard to imagine the level of abuse that could come from such incentives.
Prominent American legal scholar Jonathan Turley wrote:
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 … 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 [has] already increased the penalties for anything deemed hateful speech.
Similar legislation to define and crack down on in-person and online “hate” is being pushed across Europe.
Just recently, in Belgium, former Flemish parliamentarian Dries Van Langenhove was sentenced to one year in prison. The reason for this sentence was for sharing supposedly “racist memes” in a private group chat.
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