Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government has introduced a bill which would force online broadcasters under restrictions of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC).
The bill would also force broadcasters to offer content reflecting Canadian “values” and serve the needs and interests of people of diverse sexual orientations, gender identities and expressions, and ages.
Bill C-10 entered the House of Commons earlier this month with a first reading on Tuesday, Nov. 3. According to Minister of Heritage, Steven Guilbeault, the bill is just the start of the Liberals’ plans to censor and regulate the internet in Canada.
“There are a number of things that we’re not addressing today that were in the Yale report,” Guilbeault told reporters. “We are working on other elements of changes, of modernization to the Canadian ecosystems, but these elements will come further down the road.”
Jay Cameron, a lawyer for the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms, warned that Bill C-10 is an attempt to further limit speech free speech in Canada.
“It is clear from recent statements by the PM and the Heritage Minister that the federal government wants to increase control and penalties for speech and content that is not approved of by the ideologues in the Liberal Party,” Cameron said in an interview with LifeSiteNews.
The bill would create “online undertakings” as a new class regulated under the CRTC. A full list of CRTC online regulations have yet to be determined however, the bill does call for content that promotes the liberal agenda.
If the bill passes, subparagraph 3(1)(d)(iii) of the Broadcasting Act would be updated to read:
(iii) through its programming and the employment opportunities arising out of its operations, serve the needs and interests of all Canadians — including Canadians from racialized communities and Canadians of diverse ethnocultural backgrounds, socio-economic statuses, abilities and disabilities, sexual orientations, gender identities and expressions, and ages — and reflect their circumstances and aspirations, including equal rights, the linguistic duality and multicultural and multiracial nature of Canadian society and the special place of Indigenous peoples within that society,
“Unsurprisingly, the purpose of Bill C-10 is not to increase freedom of ‘thought, belief, opinion, and expression’ (section 2(b) of the Charter) but to further restrict it,” said Cameron.
“Bill C-10 is the first part of the push. Production of content ought to be driven by the demand of Canadian consumers, not controlled by what Ottawa thinks Canadians ought to be watching.”
Conservative MP Cheryl Gallant said the bill is only the beginning of the Liberals restricting what “Canadians can and cannot see online.”
She also says that “Bill C-10 gives the government fast track powers to overrule the CRTC.”
Gallant has posted a form at the bottom of this blog which you can use to automatically contact your local MP in opposition to Bill C-10 by simply entering your postal code.
You can read the well-researched story on LifeSiteNews to get the full scoop.
Adam
November 27, 2020 at 7:19 am
The “evidence of it being a very real…” link in the post isn’t working. This is an important link for skeptics so can you fix this please? Thanks.