Bill C-63: An invitation to lawfare

Vincent J. Curtis

8 Mar 24

RE: Fighting hate is good, but prevention is better. Op-ed by Alexander Polgar. The Hamilton Spectator 8 Mar 24.

Bill C-63, the Online Harms Act, is an invitation to lawfare.  A disfavored fringe group, which gets their jollies by saying things that annoy another fringe group, can be harassed and destroyed through the power of government if the group, fringe or otherwise, it annoys is politically favoured.  The annoyance is brought through speech the offended group calls hate.

And there may be some cause to call the speech in question hateful, but the right to expression and the right to beliefs are protected in the Charter.  The answer to hateful speech is more speech, not legal vengeance.

As Mark Steyn has often observed in the effort to control speech: the cure is invariably worse than the disease. The real danger in Bill C-63 is when the application of this well-intended measure metastasizes into the cancellation of mainstream political opposition. After all, who gets to decide what speech is hateful and what, not: why, those who have the political power to enforce their views.

Section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act had to be removed because it was being abused to harass people and suppress their speech, and Bill C-63 is of the same nature: well-intentioned, with endless opportunities for abuse.

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