MARTIN: Online harms bill aims to give law teeth to fight new bogeymen

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We all grew up to some extent fearing the mythical bogeyman who hid beneath our beds, or in our bedroom closet ready to pounce when we were most vulnerable.

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Parents often encouraged such thoughts in their children, at least on a benevolent level, to ensure they were aware that evil lurked in society and they needed to be careful when dealing with people they didn’t know.

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But the reality was, for the most part, Canadians grew up in a society where there were really few, true bogeymen.

That comfort, however, has become a thing of the past, as such mythical creatures do exist and are harboured on social media and throughout the internet.

Children today are just a click away on our home computers, or their cellular phones, from coming face to face (at least figuratively) with these real-life bogeymen (or women).

Thankfully, the federal government has finally taken some proactive steps to deal with such evil, introducing its long-awaited online harms bill this week.

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The question now is does the legislation go far enough to protect the most vulnerable members of Canadian society.

The bill, according to a National Post report, “aims to force social-media, user-uploaded adult content and live-streaming services to reduce exposure to online content deemed harmful, to strengthen the reporting of child pornography and to better address hate propaganda and provide recourse to victims of hate online.”

Among the highlights is a Criminal Code amendment that would create a new hate crime offence that would allow for punishment up to life in prison for hateful conduct and raise the maximum punishment for hate propaganda offences from five years to life for advocating genocide.

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Currently, the Criminal Code deems crimes motivated by hate based on race, national or ethnic origin, language, colour, religion, sex, age, mental or physical disability, sexual orientation, or gender identity or expression as being statutorily aggravating and therefore warrant increased punishment.

For example, an attack on a Muslim woman because of her religion or gender, would draw a harsher sentence than just a random act of violence.

Only time will tell whether the legislation goes far enough to keep the online bogeymen safely away from those they wish to prey upon.

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Obviously, as an opposition politician, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre will find reason to dismiss the legislation proposed by the Justin Trudeau Liberals.

As the National Post noted, Poilievre still doesn’t support Bill C-63 because he believes it lacks teeth.

As the Post reported, the Conservative leader said in a statement that criminal bans on intimate content communicated without consent, including “deepfakes” created with artificial intelligence, must be “enforced and expanded.”

“We believe that these serious acts should be criminalized, investigated by police, tried in court and punished with jail, not pushed off to new bureaucracy that does nothing to prevent crimes and provides no justice to victims,” Poilievre said.

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Perhaps Poilievre was simply engaging in political posturing and those elements are contemplated by the legislation, but if they are not, they need to be.

But where Poilievre does err is suggesting the bill is an attack on freedom of expression because his party does “not believe that the government should be banning opinions that contradict the Prime Minister’s radical ideology.”

It won’t be Trudeau’s opinion that matters if individuals are investigated or prosecuted for spewing hatred, but it will be up to police, Crown attorneys and ultimately judges who will determine what is, or isn’t, criminal conduct.

Free speech can’t be unfettered any more than cyberbullying or predatory online sexual behaviour can be allowed to go unchecked.

Technology is moving at breakneck speed and those dealing with its deleterious effects, from legislators to investigators, need to create and/or have the tools necessary to protect Canadians from social-media-based abuse.

KMartin@postmedia.com

X: @KMartinCourts

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