Trudeau’s Minister of “Heritage” wants to Censor the Internet

Written By Daniel Bordman, Posted on January 30, 2021

Steven Guilbeault, Trudeau’s Minister of Heritage who became a public figure when he first stated that he wanted to require companies to have a license to report the news, is now back in the limelight with his newest censorship plan.  

The Liberals are now pushing a new law that would require companies to remove any content that is deemed “illegal content”, described by Guilbreault as “hate speech, terrorist and violent extremism, child pornography, and the non-consensual sharing of intimate images online.”

First, to be fair to the Liberals here, the bill will take on some very important issues like child pornography and “revenge porn”.  The laws surrounding these issues were severely antiquated for the digital age, which allowed the major free online porn companies to ignore the complaints of women who have had their private photos leaked online and take no action on the access to child porn on their site.

These issues are important, and had they been the focus of this bill it probably would receive unanimous support, but that is not the cause. Instead, it is likely that anyone who raises some of the legitimate free speech concerns with the bill will be smeared by the Liberals and their sycophants in the media as misogynists and enablers of child pornography. 

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It has been very clear that the political focus of the bill is not on the women and children who have been exploited by sociopaths enabled by the big porn companies, but rather to fight “hate speech”.

Steven Guilbeault has very clearly marketed this bill and justified it on grounds of keeping Canadians “safe” from online hate speech.  

The most obvious line of criticism here is to ask if this bill will respect section 2b of the Canadian Charter when it comes to Freedom of Expression. For example, what constitutes “online abuse” in the Liberal’s minds?  Is it just racial or religious-based discrimination, or is it “abuse” if you get into an argument with someone online and are called an (expletive) (ie. idiot/moron, etc). Will the Liberals clarify their position on this?

(Photo from Montreal Gazette)

(Photo from Montreal Gazette)

It is likely that “racism” will be the primary focus of the Liberals, which also needs clarification if this is to be made into law. If racism is to be defined in the law as negative discrimination towards people based on race, then there are some pretty clear guidelines as to what a company can determine to be racist. 

However, if the Liberals want to use the Far-Left critical theorist definition of racism, which has to do with “the intersection of power and privilege”, then it will be the responsibility of the Liberal government to release a list ranking every ethnic and religious group in terms of who the Liberals deem to be the most powerful and privileged.

A Marxist visualization of a “power hierarchy”.

A Marxist visualization of a “power hierarchy”.

It is safe to assume that the Liberals would determine that whites are the most powerful group in Canada.  Let’s call this the “Liberal Doctrine of White Power”, but when it comes to other groups it is not so clear.  

For example, who has more power in Canadian society according to the Liberals, the Sikhs or the Hindus?  Will Hindus be able to complain about the prevalence of the Khalistani movement in Canada, which tends to be very anti-Hindu in nature?  Is this “racism” from the Hindu community, or raising legitimate concerns about extremism?

On the other hand, what about Sikhs raising concerns about radicals pushing Hindutva (Hindu supremacy)? Is it racist or raising concerns about extremism?

At the end of the day, it is doubtful that the Liberals will address any of these concerns and the same goes for the major media companies.  For years Trudeau has had an authoritarian approach to the media. His first step was to make the major media companies reliant on the government, which he did with the $595 million bailouts.  Now the next step seems to be using the law to attack the media companies unfriendly to him and the best way to hit them is to attack their ability to be on social media over spurious claims of “racism”.

Daniel Bordman

Daniel is the host of political satire show Uninterrupted, runs multiple podcasts and has written for a variety of publications. Daniel is also the communications coordinator of the Canadian Antisemitism Education Foundation. You can find him on Twitter here. Uninterrupted on YouTube

2 responses to “Trudeau’s Minister of “Heritage” wants to Censor the Internet”

  1. Eileen McRae says:

    The Liberal aim seems to be to have ONLY liberal opinion be acceptable and approved whether or not it is racist or hateful. It will make for smooth sailing into an election if opposition opinions are classified as hate speech.

  2. Roger whiteway says:

    So if I say I hate the liberals is that hate speech?