OTTAWA — After months of calls from stakeholders and opposition parties, Canada’s justice minister will split the government’s online harms bill into two parts, separating the proposed regulations for social media companies away from a controversial new proposals for prosecuting hateful acts.
Justice Minister Arif Virani announced his intention on his way into the Liberals’ weekly caucus meeting on Wednesday, saying other parties had been made aware of his plans, and that the ball now falls “squarely in their court.”
The Liberals introduced their long-awaited legislation, Bill C-63, to combat online harms back in February, following two general elections where Prime Minister Justin Trudeau ran on a promise to do so.
The bill proposes to compel social media platforms to better protect users against harmful content, ranging from that which can be used to bully a child, to intimate images shared without someone’s consent.
The government plans to do this by establishing a new digital regulator, which would have the power to enforce penalties and require companies submit plans on how to mitigate the risk of users coming into contact with damaging content.
Also included in the bill were a series of justice reforms, including stiffer Criminal Code penalties for hate crimes and the introduction of a new section to the Canadian Human Rights Act to allow people to make complaints about online hate speech.
Critics including civil liberties advocates raised concerns about the impacts such reforms could have on free speech, while supporters of the bill’s proposed social media regulations called on the government to divide the bill.
The Bloc Québécois had also called for the legislation to be split.
Virani told reporters on Wednesday he was taking the step now because of the standstill in the House of Commons, as Conservatives continue to attempt to force the government to produce documents related to the so-called “green slush fund.”
The justice minister said the bill has only had one day of debate since MPs returned from their summer break in September.
“I’m not going to look parents in the eye in this country and say I’m not doing everything I can to protect your children,” said Virani.
“What I’m going to do is divide this bill, work on areas where there is consensus and work diligently to find all-party support for doing exactly that as quickly as possible.”
National Post
[email protected]
Get more deep-dive National Post political coverage and analysis in your inbox with the Political Hack newsletter, where Ottawa bureau chief Stuart Thomson and political analyst Tasha Kheiriddin get at what’s really going on behind the scenes on Parliament Hill every Wednesday and Friday, exclusively for subscribers. Sign up here.
Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our politics newsletter, First Reading, here.