Check It Out: Speak up now before you’re censored
By Joan Janzen
joanjanzen@yahoo.com
Someone said they bought their favourite heavy metal album, but it was the censored edition. It ended up being the best instrumental CD they had heard in a long time.
Media watch dog groups have reported on three countries with the worst censorship policies. First in line is Eritrea, where since the year 2000, twenty-three journalists have been jailed without being charged, and several have died while in custody.
Second in line is North Korea where people are massively misinformed and access to cell phones and the Internet is rare.
Coming up in third place is Saudi Arabia. As a Monarchy it uses royal decrees to outlaw any criticism of the government. They use an absentee court to pass harsh sentences without the defendants even being present. They also monitor web traffic blocking any sites that are incompatible with the state position. In 2011 they passed a law forcing all online bloggers to apply for a licence in order to continue operating.
And coming up in the runner-up positions are China with the largest number of jailed journalists ... 44 in 2014. Also Vietnam where bloggers are kept under supervision because all media is used as a mouthpiece for the communist party.
All of those examples are alarming, but resemble the latest censorship bill proposed by the federal government ... Bill C-36. This follows Bill C-10 which called for censorship of social media by government, but Bill C-36 is horrific.
It allows for people to make anonymous claims against people who make them feel unsafe, fearful, hurt or offended. In other words you can be punished in advance and sentenced for a hate crime you haven’t yet committed. If the provincial court judge is satisfied there is reasonable grounds for the fear, the judge may commit the defendant to prison for not more than 12 months, or endorse reasonable conditions to secure good conduct. Those conditions could include paying up to $20,000 to your secret accuser, or receiving a fine up to $50,000, which would go to the Receiver General. But that’s not all ...
The judge could require the defendant to wear an electronic monitoring device, have a curfew, abstain from intoxicating substances or prohibit the defendant from possessing a firearm. All of this for a crime that has not yet been committed. But if you wrote something stupid on Facebook or Twitter ten years ago, you could still be charged for that as well under Bill C-36.
The media is keeping quiet about all these nuggets of information, but you can read the ten pages of information about the bill yourself if you really want to. It’s intended to eliminate hate speech, but will that be the outcome?
People secretly accusing others who offend them, and possibly being rewarded with up to $20,000, sounds like it would promote division and more hate. It sounds similar to China, but then our prime minister did say he holds a level of admiration for China.
Do you want Canada to sound like a censored CD where all that remains is the sound of Liberal lyrics? If not, speak up now.
You can contact me at joanjanzen@yahoo.com