Justice Minister Arif Virani says the Liberal government will split its controversial online harms bill and prioritize passing measures to fight child sexual predators.
Virani told reporters on Wednesday that the move will create an opportunity for a number of measures in the bill to quickly pass through the House of Commons before the next election.
The Online Harms Bill will be split into two new packages, with the first dealing with keeping children safe online, tackling sexual predators and issues relating to revenge porn.
“We are putting our emphasis, prioritization and our time and efforts on the first part of the bill,” Virani said.
That includes the establishment of a new Canadian Digital Security Commission. The new regulator would force social media companies to describe how they plan to reduce the risks their platforms pose to users, especially minors. It would have the power to impose fines and evaluate companies’ digital security plans.
Virani said the first part will also include new tools to prosecute child sexual predators. These measures refer to the obligation to report child sexual abuse material by Internet service providers and some online services.
The bill targets seven categories of online behavior, from sharing intimate images without consent to content that can be used to bully a child.
The House has been deadlocked for months over a debate over parliamentary privilege between Liberals and Conservatives that has prevented most legislation from moving forward.
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Virani said that means there has only been one day of debate on the bill since September, a situation he described as “frustrating.”
“That obstruction has made us rethink how we can best use the precious time we have left in this Parliament,” he said.
Critics have long called on the government to split the bill so that the most controversial issues are debated separately.
The second package of measures will address amendments to the Penal Code and the Human Rights Law targeting hate, including tougher penalties for hate-related crimes. Advocates and some legal experts have said the changes risk crippling free speech.
The Canadian Civil Liberties Association welcomed the decision to split the legislation on Wednesday. “It is crucial that this new law, which proposes to regulate online content, is now the subject of a broad public and parliamentary conversation,” Anaïs Bussières McNicoll, director of the organization’s Fundamental Freedoms Programme, said in a statement.
Michael Geist, Canada Research Chair in Internet Law and E-Commerce at the University of Ottawa, called the decision to split the bill in two “long overdue.” He said in a post on
Responding to a question on whether the government is willing to make changes to the second part of the bill to address the concerns of civil liberties activists, Virani said it is willing to consider amendments proposed by witnesses in the committee. . He made the announcement a day before a parliamentary committee begins hearing witness testimony on the bill.
Virani said the “goal is to work to find consensus among parliamentarians on things we can agree to immediately.”
Emily Laidlaw, Canada Research Chair in Cybersecurity Law at the University of Calgary, who served on the government’s expert advisory group in developing the legislation, said the first part of the bill should be “bipartisan.” .
He said in a post on X that the first part of the bill “aligns with global standards, some of which were developed” by Conservative governments.
But Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre has previously promised to repeal the legislation entirely if it becomes law.
When asked if Conservative MPs would support the government’s decision to split the bill in two, the party shared a statement from Conservative justice critic Larry Brock indicating that a future Conservative government would repeal the regulation bills in line approved by the liberal government.
He said Virani is “desperately trying to save his deeply flawed legislation. “It should give up creating its massive $200 million censorship bureaucracy and instead adopt our widely welcomed, superior common sense Bill C-412.”
Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner introduced the private members’ bill in September. It would modernize existing criminal harassment law so that a victim can ask a judge to force social media companies to identify someone who has repeatedly harassed them online.
© 2024 The Canadian Press
