Juno News - February 06, 2021The legacy media doesn’t care about free speech
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Summary
In this episode, Andrew Lawton talks about the proposed legislation from Heritage Minister Stephen Gilbeau that seeks to regulate online speech in Canada, and why no one else is standing up for free speech. He also discusses the MindGeek Pornhub situation and why it's important to protect our most vulnerable online.
Transcript
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I've been covering the last few shows, this forthcoming legislation that Heritage Minister
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Stephen Gilbeau has promised to regulate online speech.
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And the reason I'm talking about it again is because no one else is.
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For example, Stephen Gilbeau mentioned, and this is what I said on Tuesday's show, that
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the online hate definition will be based on a Supreme Court decision that actually took
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a very non-inclusive view of, and I don't mean inclusive in the like Justin Trudeau diversity
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is our strength sense, but I mean inclusive in the sense of what is legal and what is
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acceptable, a very non-inclusive view of free speech by focusing more on harms and by saying
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that, you know what, even speech that's true could conceivably be hateful.
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And the reason this is so important is because that story got a little bit of coverage in
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No English media covered it, except for True North.
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And similarly, when he's been in an ongoing basis talking about this, almost no one has
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asked the questions through the lens of free speech.
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What is this legislation actually going to be about?
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When we talk about free speech and all of the aspects of society that are connected to
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it, it's astonishing how few advocates there are for it.
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And this is something that used to be a lot more unanimous than it is now.
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For example, when the Canadian Human Rights Commission had its Section 13, which was the
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online hate speech provision that was taken away, it was rescinded by the Conservatives, there
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were a lot of people on the left and the right, your old school liberals, that said, you know
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People in the mainstream media, journalists that said, you know what, this is actually
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pretty chilling to free speech and stood up and opposed it on principle.
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When Ezra Levant and Mark Stein were fighting these commissions, they were actually getting
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support from people who were their political opponents because everyone realized or enough
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people realized, you know what, we can't have these institutions that have mandates
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Well, now what's happening, the liberals are bringing back Section 13 with a vengeance.
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They're bringing back a much more powerful and supercharged version of it, which is still
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aiming to enforce a definition of hate speech that is distinct from the definition that exists
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in the criminal code and the definition that actually exists in Canadian laws.
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They're creating a new definition which only serves to restrict and hinder free speech.
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Where's Canadian journalists for free expression?
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In a lot of ways, I have to ask, where are the Conservatives?
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I asked Conservative leader Aaron O'Toole at a press conference about this, and I want
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The Heritage Minister has said that the government will imminently be introducing legislation to tackle
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what it says is online hate, and Minister Gilboa has said that the definition will be based
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on the Watcott Supreme Court decision, which was one that had focused more on harm than
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free speech, and had actually at one point had said that something could be truthful but still
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And I'm curious for you as the leader of a party that repealed Section 13 of the Human Rights
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Act and someone who stood up for free speech in the leadership, what your thoughts are on
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I've stood up for free speech in this parliamentary session when the Prime Minister, Mr. Trudeau,
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suggested it wasn't a priority when it's a fundamental pillar.
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We saw President Macron call Prime Minister Legault or Premier Legault before he called Prime Minister
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This week, Andrew, we've actually been focused on the MindGeek Pornhub situation where we
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Some of the testimony we've heard is literally heartbreaking, and the fact that a company that
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was originated in Canada and had that presence, the fact that we're not shutting down these
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ability for the vulnerable to be exploited online is a travesty.
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So we'll see what the government brings forward, but we want to make sure that the most vulnerable
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with online exploitation is an immediate priority.
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You know, I think the MindGeek Pornhub issue is a very important one.
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I think protecting the vulnerable from online harm is a very important issue.
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I don't think it has anything to do with the question that I asked.
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And apart from that very tacit endorsement of free speech in a general sense at the beginning,
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there was nothing to do with free speech in his answer.
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Now, I didn't ask that as a softball, but I am fully aware that asking a conservative
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to stand up for free speech is probably one of the easiest things you can do.
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That's like just a no-brainer for people on the right to say, well, yes, you know,
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free speech is great and this is terrible and here's why.
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And it was Brian Storseth, a conservative MP who led the charge to rescind Section 13.
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It was conservative MPs on the Justice Committee even last year that were actually doing their
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work, or it might have been 2019 rather, that were doing their work to push back against
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some of the discussions in committee that led to this legislation indirectly.
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But Erin O'Toole was asked a very clear question, could not give an answer that was standing
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up against this with the exception of, well, we'll see what the government does.
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We already know what the government is putting out here because they've told us.
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Now, I would like to actually testify when this goes before committee.
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I would like to testify before committee on this.
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And I am going to tell you, if you have a conservative MP and you're riding, let them know,
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especially if they're sitting on that committee.
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I want to be there because we need free speech advocates right now to push back against this.
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You know, there were enough cultural issues, cultural barriers to free speech right now
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in society, from big tech, in all of these other ways.
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We don't need yet another legal barrier, a tool to allow the government to get in bed with
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big tech and censor people that, again, are guilty of something that is very ill-defined
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This legislation that the government is looking at will penalize big tech if they do not censor.
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And Minister Gilboa mentioned that, oh, well, you know, we should probably have an appeal
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But I don't know if they're going to actually have that.
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And the fact that he's acknowledged ramming this through because there might be an election,
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so we have to work quickly, indicates that this won't be all that well thought out.
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So I cannot stress how important this legislation is to watch, and I cannot stress my disappointment
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My message to you, and I know I've got members of parliament that listen to this show and read
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my columns, and I'm very appreciative of it, but do not let this get by without a fight.
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Thanks for listening to The Andrew Lawton Show.
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Support the program by donating to True North at www.tnc.news.