Canada to make online hate speech a crime punishable by fine
This is bad. The bill does not define "hate speech"; that's left for later administrative determination. All we have so far is “expresses detestation or vilification of a person or group on the basis of a prohibited ground of discrimination.”<p>Combining "detestation" ("I don't like you") with vilification ("You're evil") is a concern. The first is legitimate opinion. The second is defamation. For which truth is a defense under US law.<p>The committee report that fed into this bill [1] is scary. "Finding that certain expression falls within political speech does not close off the enquiry into whether the expression constitutes hate speech."[2] This is at least in part about suppressing political speech on certain issues.<p>YMCA of Canada proposed a definition: "integrate an intersectional gender equity lens and consider the gendered impacts of anti-Black racism, anti-Indigenous racism, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and Xenophobia in any definition of “hate” and “online hate”". Think of trying to defend against a claim of that in court.<p>The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs proposed the IHRA definition of antisemitism, the one that includes some kinds of criticism of the Israeli government.[3]<p>This isn't classic hate speech, intended to incite people to violence. Such as "Hang Mike Pence". This is far, far broader.<p>[1] <a href="https://www.ourcommons.ca/DocumentViewer/en/42-1/JUST/report-29/page-57#11" rel="nofollow">https://www.ourcommons.ca/DocumentViewer/en/42-1/JUST/report...</a><p>[2] <a href="https://scc-csc.lexum.com/scc-csc/scc-csc/en/item/12876/index.do?q=whatcott" rel="nofollow">https://scc-csc.lexum.com/scc-csc/scc-csc/en/item/12876/inde...</a><p>[3] <a href="https://www.jta.org/2021/01/15/global/the-ihra-definition-of-anti-semitism-and-why-people-are-fighting-over-it-explained" rel="nofollow">https://www.jta.org/2021/01/15/global/the-ihra-definition-of...</a>