The Liberal government is splitting the Online Harms Bill into two separate bills in a bid to avoid a divisive debate over the bill and speed up passage of measures to protect children from online predators. .
“Our goal is to try to reach agreement among parliamentarians on things that can be quickly agreed upon,” Justice Minister Arif Virani said Wednesday when announcing the move.
“I believe protecting children from violent threats, child sex offenders, revenge porn, and more should be everyone’s top priority.”
Virani introduced Bill C-63, the Online Harms Act, in February.
This law applies to content that is used to bully children or encourage children to self-harm, hate speech, content that incites violence or terrorism, content that sexualizes children or victims of sexual violence, and posts. It was written to crack down on harmful content online, including sexual content. without consent.
invoice Passed the first examination It was passed by the House of Representatives in February, but has not been considered in Congress since then.
Parliament deadlocked over privileges motion
Virani said only one day has been set aside for consideration of Bill C-63 since Parliament reconvened after the summer break. The Minister of Justice blames the lack of progress on the debate that has been in turmoil in the House of Commons for nearly two months.
The debate stems from a House of Commons order directing the government to hand over unredacted documents related to a now-defunct foundation responsible for providing hundreds of millions of dollars to green technology projects.
The House has been unable to proceed with much of its normal business because the debate is seen as a matter of privilege.
As long as Conservative Members continue to rise to speak on Conservative motions relating to document consideration, and as long as the Liberal Government refuses to hand over the remaining documents to the House Law Clerk, all others in the House work remains delayed.
“If there’s anyone to blame for the lack of time spent debating this bill, it’s the obstruction we’re seeing on the floor right behind me,” Villani said.
“This disability has made us think about how we can make better use of our time, our precious time. [have] left in this parliament. ”
Virani said the Liberal Party’s Online Harms Bill would proceed along two different trajectories. One bill would address protecting children, combating online child sex offenders and cracking down on revenge porn.
The second bill would amend the Canadian Human Rights Act and Criminal Code to address violence, incitement to terrorism and hate speech.
Virani said he did not intend to change the wording of Bill C-63 when it was split into two separate bills, but said he was open to amendments until the bill passes parliament.
Poilievre will decommission the C-63
When the Online Harms Act was introduced earlier this year, the federal government estimated it would require more than 300 people to enforce the measure. Yves Giroux Parliamentary Budget Officer A report was published in the summer It has been suggested that staffing and enforcement will cost around $200 million over five years.
Conservative Party leader Pierre Poièvre has been critical of the measures taken by C-63, which will oversee the new rules with a five-member Digital Safety Committee and staff from the Heritage Department. The Tory leader said bullying and other forms of online harm should be dealt with by police, rather than being “pushed through new bureaucracies”.
Poièvre said the Liberal government should instead focus on modernizing existing laws. A spokesperson for Mr Poièvre said of a future Conservative government: would repeal that law Once I took office.
This is not the first time the Liberal government has struggled to get online harms legislation through parliament.
In June 2021, the federal government introduced Bill C-36, which aims to crack down on hate propaganda, hate crimes and hate speech.
The government’s original proposal argued that a requirement for online platforms to remove content marked as harmful within 24 hours would encourage companies to take an overly cautious approach and would stifle free speech. It was harshly criticized by privacy experts and civil rights groups.
The bill passed first reading in the House of Representatives, but was defeated when the 2021 federal elections were held.
