Ottawa wants to legislate on hateful content while protecting freedoms

(Ottawa) Federal Justice Minister Arif Virani hopes to avoid accusations that his government is regulating or restricting freedom of expression with his possible bill to protect Canadians from hateful and harmful content online .


There is growing pressure on the Liberal government to finally table its long-promised bill, following a sharp increase in online anti-Semitism since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas on October 7.

In 2022, the government sent its draft bill back to the drawing board, following criticism. Minister Virani now tells The Canadian Press he hopes to introduce the final bill in 2024.

On Monday, in a publication on the .

At the weekend, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police announced that they had arrested and charged a minor in Ottawa with terrorism-related offenses allegedly targeting Jews.

The “young person”, who cannot be identified because of his age, was accused of having facilitated a terrorist activity by communicating instructional documents concerning an explosive substance, and of having knowingly, directly or no, a person to engage in terrorist activity against Jewish people.

The federal police also warned of “a worrying trend towards violent extremism and the use of the internet for terrorist purposes, particularly among young people”.

More than two years ago, during the election campaign, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised to tackle terrorist content, hate speech and images of child sexual assault online, by introducing a bill “ within 100 days” following the October 2021 elections.

Minister Virani adds on X Monday that “our laws are designed to ensure the safety of public spaces – the internet should be no exception”.


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