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.”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.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.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.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]This isn't classic hate speech, intended to incite people to violence. Such as "Hang Mike Pence". This is far, far broader.[1] https://www.ourcommons.ca/DocumentViewer/en/42-1/JUST/report...[2] https://scc-csc.lexum.com/scc-csc/scc-csc/en/item/12876/inde...[3] https://www.jta.org/2021/01/15/global/the-ihra-definition-of...