(LifeSiteNews) — A top Canadian constitutional lawyer is warning that the Liberals’ “dystopian” internet censorship measure, Bill C-22, which would demand that people’s data be kept for potential police review, will lead to a “greater risk” for religious freedoms.
In a recent opinion piece, posted on the Catholic Register, Marty Moore, who works with the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF) as a constitutional litigator, said the bills show a desire by the current government to “police” people’s expressions online.
According to Moore, “religious speech” is at issue with both Bill C-22 and Bill C-34, which is a bill that bans social media use for minors. He said that this is because another Liberal law, Bill C-9, or the “Bible ban” bill, as it’s known, has already “removed the clear bright line protection for good faith discussion of religious texts as a defence from the accusation of hate.”
“If you’re having religious speech online and a police officer views that as hate and now is not encumbered by this idea that you might’ve been having a good-faith religious discussion online, they can still view it as hate even if they view it as a good-faith religious discussion online,” he said.
“Now your privacy is being invaded in a police investigation.”
Bill C-9 was recently passed by the Senate and will repeal religious protections and effectively criminalize quoting parts of the Bible, including on homosexuality. It was amended at the last minute to ban images of a noose because a senator said that it’s a symbol of “White supremacy.”
Another law, Bill C-34, looks to ban social media use for minors. However, constitutional groups have warned the social media ban could lead to surrendering “freedoms.”
As for Bill C-22, JCCF president John Carpay has warned that it “empowers government to require electronic service providers to install surveillance and interception capacity on their networks, and keep confidential user metadata (e.g., location, call duration, contacts) on file for six months.”
Moore noted that, under the online harms part of Bill C-34, there could be a “lower threshold for some of the hate offences” in it, where the “digital safety commission could pressure and punish service providers for hosting and facilitating your expression.”
“You yourself could also be subject to enforcement through the digital safety commission or through law enforcement,” he warned.
When it comes to Bill C-22, Moore is also concerned that the bill shows that the “government doesn’t intend to be transparent on this file, and the way it passed (the House of Commons) I think exemplifies that.”
As reported by LifeSiteNews, Bill C-22 was rammed through the House of Commons with unvetted amendments in June.
Moore said, Canadians “weren’t even able to know what amendment text the MPs were voting on.”
Recently, Carpay warned that it’s only a “matter of time” before the Canadian government tracks citizens’ every move and communications in one big “surveillance web.”
Since replacing former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Mark Carney has continued with laws that attack Canadians’ basic freedoms.
Carney has globalist ties and was called the World Economic Forum’s “golden boy” by Canadian Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre. The prime minister has also admitted that he is an “elitist” and a “globalist.”
