Juno News - April 30, 2021


Liberals say opponents of their internet regulation bill are ＂extremist＂


Episode Stats

Length

4 minutes

Words per Minute

174.23041

Word Count

732

Sentence Count

39


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Justin Trudeau's Liberals continue to move forward Bill C-10,
00:00:10.260 a bill that would monumentally transform the internet
00:00:12.960 by putting virtually every aspect of online content under government regulation.
00:00:19.460 Concerns about this have been raised by civil liberties advocates,
00:00:22.780 by privacy experts, by professors, by people across the spectrum.
00:00:27.280 Yet the Liberals insist there's no problem at all.
00:00:31.100 And just this week, as a matter of fact, a Conservative member of Parliament,
00:00:34.260 Rachel Harder, raised these concerns directly to Heritage Minister Stephen Gilbeau.
00:00:39.060 She asked how the government can do this when this is exactly what would happen
00:00:42.740 in a totalitarian country, government regulation of speech on the internet.
00:00:47.680 Here's that exchange.
00:00:48.540 We are seeing this government mimic behavior that is consistent with a basic dictatorship.
00:00:53.420 It's wrong.
00:00:54.040 With their transformational edit that they just made to Bill C-10,
00:00:57.500 the Liberals are trying to give themselves the power to control what Canadians can read online,
00:01:02.160 what they post on social media, and the videos that they watch on YouTube.
00:01:05.640 Again, it's wrong.
00:01:07.560 Why is the government doing this?
00:01:11.260 The Honourable Minister.
00:01:14.200 Well, Mr. Speaker, that press release was issued yesterday.
00:01:17.160 I think what we're seeing now is, you know, these are big, powerful, in fact,
00:01:22.000 some of the wealthiest corporations on the planet.
00:01:25.020 And clearly, the member opposite and her party are just afraid to stand up to them.
00:01:31.000 And again, it seems that the Conservative Party is listening to the most extremist element of their party,
00:01:36.160 as they have on very important issues, such as climate change or women's rights to choose, Mr. Speaker.
00:01:41.920 When faced with a very realistic criticism, the Liberals have only one response.
00:01:47.240 To accuse their critics of being extremists.
00:01:50.140 That's what he did there.
00:01:51.120 No substantive answer to the question.
00:01:53.120 Just an accusation that the Conservatives are being big, old, mean, scary extremists,
00:01:57.380 just like they are when it comes to abortion or climate change.
00:02:00.140 Those are the only two issues the Liberals are capable of pivoting to,
00:02:03.380 rather than accept that they are putting forward a policy that will send a chilling effect
00:02:07.780 directly on free speech around the country.
00:02:10.900 And the other part of this is incredibly disingenuous.
00:02:14.120 Minister Gilboa said this is just about regulating some of the richest and most powerful corporations in the world.
00:02:19.540 The Googles, the Apples, the Amazons, and so on.
00:02:22.660 And while those companies will, of course, be regulated,
00:02:25.600 the whole nature of platforms is that they have to be platforms for something.
00:02:30.000 In this case, they are platforms for content
00:02:32.600 that is published by companies large and small and by individuals in Canada.
00:02:37.740 And remember, it was the Liberals on the Heritage Committee
00:02:41.080 that pushed an amendment on Bill C-10 that would ensure it encompassed user-generated content.
00:02:47.680 That means this very video that you're watching now.
00:02:50.240 It means anything that you post as an individual will all of a sudden be regulated by government,
00:02:55.400 which means the government will have,
00:02:57.080 as Minister Gilboa has previously admitted,
00:02:59.480 the ability to strike things from the internet,
00:03:02.740 the kill switch, so to speak.
00:03:04.300 This is not just an egregious bill that violates the very fundamental freedoms
00:03:09.240 we all enjoy in our lives and our ability to use the internet,
00:03:12.260 but it's also egregious that the Liberals' defense of this bill
00:03:15.060 involves just calling anyone who criticizes it an extremist.
00:03:18.800 There should be more political opposition to this,
00:03:21.520 and it's a shame that so far the only real opposition
00:03:23.880 is coming from just one party, and the Conservatives.
00:03:26.640 The whole point of what the Liberals are trying to do here
00:03:29.220 is to put government in the driver's seat on what acceptable online speech is.
00:03:34.180 This doesn't just mean what you can tweet or post to Facebook,
00:03:37.400 but also what news is available.
00:03:39.700 Remember, True North did a roundup just last week
00:03:42.080 of 10 different occasions on which the Liberals have accused things
00:03:45.600 that were true of being disinformation or conspiracy theories.
00:03:49.780 The Liberals have a very self-serving view of what valid content is,
00:03:54.520 so no one should ever trust this Liberal government
00:03:57.560 to be the arbiters of what is allowed to be said online,
00:04:00.860 because they've already shown their hand.
00:04:02.500 They have already revealed that they don't think anything critical of them
00:04:05.920 is true at all, and this is just one further example of that.
00:04:10.400 For True North, I'm Andrew Lawton.