Justice Minister to Introduce Online Harms Bill Next Week
The upcoming Online Harms Act, sponsored by Justice Minister Arif Virani, is set to be tabled next week by the Liberal government. Previously rumored for April, the bill appears on the Feb. 26
notice paper for the House of Commons.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has emphasized the bill’s goal of protecting children, while Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre has criticized it as additional censorship legislation.
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“We need to do a better job as a society, keeping kids safe online, keeping them safe from child sexual exploitation, from bullying, and the kinds of mental health distress that far too many of our young people are going through,” Mr. Trudeau said Feb. 22 about the bill.
Mr. Poilievre accused the Liberal government of aiming to criminalize speech the prime minister disapproves of.
“What does Justin Trudeau mean when he says the word ‘hate speech?’ He means speech he hates,” he said during a Feb. 21 press conference.
The Conservatives have consistently opposed legislative attempts to alter the information landscape, including Bill C-18 and C-11. They label C-11, a revision of the Broadcasting Act, as a “censorship law.” The bill gave the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission increased authority over online content.
Mr. Virani, whose department has taken over the bill from the heritage department, defended the upcoming legislation in a mid-December interview with The Canadian Press.
“Where I don’t want this bill to go is down some sort of path where it looks like people are trying to tell you what to think, or how to criticize people,” Mr. Virani said. “That’s absolutely not what we’re talking about.”
The bill will seek to amend the Canadian Human Rights Act, but how it will do so remains unknown.
revival of some version of it in 2019.
Mr. Virani informed the National Post he was working on a new “online harms bill” in 2021 while serving as parliamentary secretary to Justice Minister David Lametti. He said it would feature a component from the justice ministry, specifically codifying a new definition of online hate into law.
