Hate has become the buzzword of our times. But hate has taken on entirely new political significance. Hate is now being used as a political weapon by lobby groups to silence, smear and attack their opponents and critics.
As a political and social phenomenon, hate speech is often defined as any form of expression through which speakers intend to vilify, humiliate or incite hatred against a group or a class of persons on the basis of race, religion, skin colour, sexual identity, gender identity, ethnicity, disability, or national origin.
Bill C-63 amends the Criminal Code to define hatred as “the emotion that involves detestation or vilification” that is “stronger than disdain or dislike.”
Any enlightened individual or society is opposed to hate, but hate is a subjective emotional reaction and it cannot be measured or quantified. We cannot measure the amount of hate in pounds or inches.
People can watch a politician speak and gain entirely different views of the same speech. One person might say it was a marvelously liberating speech, while another might say it was a hateful and undemocratic speech.
It is very dangerous to empower unelected bureaucrats to make subjective assessments of what is or is not hateful, and then to further empower a committee to selectively and arbitrarily imprison people for expressing strong emotion.
Furthermore, Bill C-63 is designed to punish hate speech that “is likely to foment detestation or vilification of an individual or group of individuals on the basis of a prohibited ground of discrimination.” This is also highly subjective. How do we measure whether someone’s online comments are likely to foment hate towards individuals or groups? (more...)
Canada’s Online Harms Act Bill C-63: Life in Prison for Thought Criminals
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