Liberal leader and Prime Minister Mark Carney says his government will take a third shot at regulating harmful online content if re-elected, calling digital hate and misinformation a threat to Canadians.
According to a report from Western Standard, Carney made the comments during a campaign rally in Hamilton last week.
“There are many serious issues that we’re dealing with,” Carney said. “One of them is the sea of misogyny, antisemitism, hatred, and conspiracy theories — this sort of pollution online that washes over our virtual borders from the United States.”
“The more serious thing is when it affects how people behave — when Canadians are threatened going to their community centres or their places of worship or their school or, God forbid, when it affects our children,” said the Prime Minister. “My government, if we are elected, will be taking action.”
Reaction to his speech regarding online censorship was shock for some, according to posts on X.
The Liberals have tried twice before to introduce legislation targeting online harms. The most recent effort, Bill C-63 (the Online Harms Act), aimed to regulate content deemed likely to cause “detestation or vilification” and would have given enforcement power to the Canadian Human Rights Commission. That bill died in Parliament earlier this year. A similar proposal, Bill C-36, was dropped in 2021.
Last year, former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said at the time, “For too long, web giants have failed to keep kids safe online. Far too often, this has had devastating consequences.” He continued, “to hold web giants accountable for the harmful content they host, and to make online spaces safer, we’ve introduced the Online Harms Act.” The legislation’s plan was to match the UK, EU and Australia when it came to online safety measures targeting big tech platforms such as TikTok, X, Meta and YouTube.
Critics have raised concerns over freedom of expression, but the government says online discourse is becoming increasingly toxic. Former Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge warned in February that misinformation now spreads faster than facts and that public debate is being manipulated by algorithms.
Carney did not offer details about what a new version of the law would look like or how much the government would spend on regulating digital platforms.
The federal election is set to take place in two weeks on April 28, 2025.
What do you think? Should the federal government have online censorship laws to police what can be said on the internet?
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Shocked
/sarcasm
Is anyone surprised? It took 9 years for many to wake up to how disastrous Trudeau’s policies were for Canada. Is it really reasonable to expect those same geniuses to clue into Carney being Trudeau on steroids? Carney is much brighter than Justin, but that just means he’ll be much more effective at destroying the country in the name of achieving the WEF goal of creating the first “post national” state with “no core Canadian national identity or culture”.
Rights are just a nuisance to be removed as quickly as possible.
Partisanship aside, I don't understand why anyone thinks this kind of censorship can be beneficial to the country.
Where possible, we should set partisanship aside. But, in terms of repeatedly pushing for censorship of the masses, it seems one party is entirely too enamoured with the idea. Anyone that treats a core, fundamental freedom (probably the most fundamental to all other freedoms) so callously, clearly places no value in rights as intrinsic and instead sees them as a gift from The Leader. Gifts can be taken away very casually with that mindset. You can only hold such a position if you believe the people are dumb and have no agency to decide what they think for themselves.
I don't understand why some people are downvoting your statement. There was nothing offensive or controversial about it. It's a bit sad to be honest.
I suppose that when a society declines, there have to be those that drive it and cheer it on. I’m sure most think it’s for the best and rationalize or blind themselves to the decline. Others might honestly have been convinced that western culture is inherently bad and deserves to be torn down, with utopia waiting on the other side.
Or it’s just “if my party supports it, it must be right” mindset.
The Western Standard is not a reliable source of “news”. They’re full of rage bait designed to get people’s reactions and attention.
I mean, there’s video of him saying it. They don’t have the ability to censor it yet. No need for Approved Media to spoon feed a narrative when you can watch it yourself. That, and the Libs have been trying to push this through for years.
this is how you lose votes, restrict the voice of freedom.