Civil liberties group sounds alarm as feds renew online censorship push

A Canadian civil liberties group is renewing its warnings about the Liberal internet censorship bill, the Online Harms Act, after the Carney government signalled it would likely reintroduce the law.

A Canadian civil liberties group is renewing its warnings about the Liberal internet censorship bill, the Online Harms Act, after the Carney government signalled it would likely reintroduce the law in the current Parliamentary session.

The Democracy Fund, a Canadian charity dedicated to preserving constitutional rights, sounded the alarm on Friday, warning of a potentially incoming online censorship bill.

The warnings came after Liberal Safety Minister Sean Fraser announced in a Canadian Press interview on Thursday that his government was looking to reintroduce parts of the controversial Online Harms Act, also known as Bill C-63.

The civil liberties group expressed concern that the bill would be introduced in the same or modified form as it was before the government's prorogation, which had previously killed it.

“In 2024, the government proposed regulating online speech under Bill C-63,” TDF said in a statement on X. “While addressing legitimate concerns surrounding child exploitation and terrorism, the Bill added provisions to the Criminal Code for various speech crimes, making it a criminal offence to publish ill-defined "harmful content."

As the group detailed, more controversial aspects of the bill required social media companies to remove potentially harmful content from their platforms or face punitive fines.

“Many defenders of civil liberty, including TDF, worried that the application of this badly defined concept would lead to mass surveillance and censorship,” the group said.

The bill would have also established a Digital Safety Commission to regulate tech platforms, protect children from sexual crimes and harms, while also making controversial amendments to the Criminal Code and Canadian Human Rights Act.

Before prorogation, however, the Liberal government caved to criticism that the aspects about sex crimes and protecting children online should be separate from the more controversial aspects, which curtail free expression.

It was widely criticized by civil liberties advocates, including Jordan Peterson, who pointed to aspects of the bill which could have created financial incentives for those reporting others to the commission. Critics such as Peterson also noted it would have allowed for free expression restrictions to be placed on individuals who were merely “expected to commit a hate crime” with their speech online.

In its last iteration, the Parliamentary Budget Officer warned that the new bureaucracy proposed by the legislation would have cost Canadian taxpayers at least $200 million within five years of being passed.

"There are laws in place that the government can, and does, use to address most of the bad conduct that the Bill ostensibly targeted. To the extent that there are gaps in the Criminal Code, amendments should be carefully drafted to fix this,” TDF Litigation Director Mark Joseph said in the post.

“However, the previous Bill C-63 sought to implement a regime of mass censorship. TDF is concerned that the government will try once more to give itself the power to criminalize and punish online speech and debate. TDF will oppose that."