If the Trudeau-NDP’s Bill C-59 comes into force, I may be the first one prosecuted because I won’t stop telling the truth about the many benefits of Alberta’s oil and gas industry, no matter what crazy laws they pass.
If you haven’t already heard, let me give you some background.
In February, NDP MP Charlie Angus introduced a bill threatening fines and even jail time for people who dared to defend our oil and gas sector. Canadians laughed it off as absurd. But now, through last-minute amendments to Bill C-59, the NDP have sneaked their gag order in through the back door.
With support from the Liberals and Bloc, the Trudeau-NDP are creating an echo chamber where their anti-oil and gas views go unchallenged. This bill is designed to silence people from speaking the truth, allowing eco-radical activists to sue over so-called “misleading environmental benefits.”
It’s utterly ridiculous to muzzle folks who talk publicly about emission reduction alternatives that differ from Steven Guilbeault’s failed carbon tax. The bill has already passed in the House of Commons and is now in the Liberal-dominated Senate, where it is expected to be rubber-stamped.
Let me be clear: Alberta will not comply with this undemocratic Liberal-NDP gag order.
The Liberals Contemplate A New Law to Outlaw “Misinformation” About Coronavirus
The Canadian Association for Free Expression has warned from the beginning of the Coronavirus hysteria that governments would use this as an opportunity for a power grab and to curtain civil liberties.
We’ve seen people heavily fined for walking their dog in a park or kicking a soccer ball to their child in a park.
Now, the power mad elite is contemplating a law to gag discussion of the Coronavirus crisis, if the discussion contradicts the government’s party line. CBC (April 15, 2020) reports: “The federal government is considering introducing legislation to make it an offence to knowingly spread misinformation that could harm people, says Privy Council President Dominic LeBlanc. He said he has discussed the matter already with other cabinet ministers, including Justice Minister David Lametti. If the government decides to follow through, he said, it could take a while to draft legislation.”
Needless to say the NDP is supportive of restricting free speech. “
NDP MP Charlie Angus said he would support legislation to fight online misinformation.
“Extraordinary times require extraordinary measures and it is about protecting the public,” he said.
“This is not a question of freedom of speech. This is a question of people who are actually actively working to spread disinformation, whether it’s through troll bot farms, whether [it’s] state operators or whether it’s really conspiracy theorist cranks who seem to get their kicks out of creating havoc.”
To his credit Conservative leader Andrew Scheer has spoken out strongly against this totalitarian power grab. “
“We’re concerned when
this government starts talking about free speech issues,” Scheer told
reporters at a news conference Thursday. “They’ve got a terrible history
over the past few years of proposing ideas that would infringe upon
free speech.”
“Any time this government starts talking about regulating what people can say and not say, we start off the conversation with a great deal of healthy skepticism,” Scheer added, pointing out that the government has changed its pandemic messaging on travel restrictions and the use of masks.”
Mr. Scheer is hinting at the fact the Sinophile government has spread a good deal of false news itself. Faithfully parroting the Red Chinese propaganda line, they early denounced any calls for a travel ban or restrictions on visitors from Red China and pooh poohed the usefulness of face masks.
__________________
Federal government open to new law to fight pandemic misinformation
It’s one of several measures the government is considering to counter fake news about the virus online
Elizabeth Thompson · CBC News · Posted: Apr 15, 2020 4:00 AM ET | Last Updated: 2 hours ago
Privy Council President Dominic LeBlanc’s cabinet mandate letter gave him responsibility for fighting online disinformation. (Jessica Rubinger/CBC News)
The
federal government is considering introducing legislation to make it an
offence to knowingly spread misinformation that could harm people, says
Privy Council President Dominic LeBlanc.
LeBlanc told
CBC News he is interested in British MP Damian Collins’s call for laws
to punish those responsible for spreading dangerous misinformation
online about the COVID-19 pandemic.
LeBlanc
said he has discussed the matter already with other cabinet ministers,
including Justice Minister David Lametti. If the government decides to
follow through, he said, it could take a while to draft legislation.
“Legislatures
and Parliaments are meeting scarcely because of the current context of
the pandemic, so it’s not a quick solution, but it’s certainly something
that we would be open [to] as a government,” said LeBlanc.
NDP MP Charlie Angus said he would support legislation to fight online misinformation.
‘Cranks … creating havoc’
“Extraordinary times require extraordinary measures and it is about protecting the public,” he said.
“This
is not a question of freedom of speech. This is a question of people
who are actually actively working to spread disinformation, whether it’s
through troll bot farms, whether [it’s] state operators or whether it’s
really conspiracy theorist cranks who seem to get their kicks out of
creating havoc.”
Opposition Leader Andrew Scheer criticized the idea of using legislation to curb misinformation.
“We’re
concerned when this government starts talking about free speech
issues,” Scheer told reporters at a news conference Thursday. “They’ve
got a terrible history over the past few years of proposing ideas that
would infringe upon free speech.”
“Any
time this government starts talking about regulating what people can
say and not say, we start off the conversation with a great deal of
healthy skepticism,” Scheer added, pointing out that the government has
changed its pandemic messaging on travel restrictions and the use of
masks.
The comments
come as governments around the world struggle to curb dangerous
misinformation and disinformation circulating about the COVID-19
pandemic.
Collins, who chaired an international committee on big data, privacy and democracy in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal,
said at the outset of the pandemic that much of the misinformation and
disinformation in circulation was promoting fake cures for COVID-19 or
offering tips on how to avoid catching it.
British
MP Damian Collins is calling for new laws to make it an offence to
knowingly spread misinformation that can harm people. (Stephanie Jenzer/CBC)
More
recently, said Collins, the misinformation has shifted to conspiracy
theories about what triggered the pandemic — claims that it was cooked
up in a lab, for example. A conspiracy theory claiming the disease is
caused by 5G wireless signals prompted attacks on wireless towers in the
U.K.
The British
government has set up a rapid response team to correct false information
circulating online. Collins has launched a fact-checking site called Infotagion, along with Angus and Liberal MP Nate Erskine-Smith, among others.
‘Maliciously’ spreading lies
Collins
is calling for legislation to combat online disinformation, perhaps
modelled on Germany’s laws governing online hate speech or France’s
legislation countering disinformation during election campaigns.
“It’s
such a serious public emergency that I think for someone to knowingly,
willingly and at scale and maliciously spread this content should be an
offence,” he said.
“And
equally for the tech companies, if it is highlighted to [them] that
someone is doing this and they don’t act against them doing it, then it
should be an offence for them to have failed to act — they would have
failed in their duty of care.”
Prime
Minister Justin Trudeau’s government set up an elaborate system to
watch out for attempts to disrupt last year’s federal election through
disinformation, including a committee that brought together several
departments and a special group chaired by the clerk of the Privy
Council to sound the alarm.
Opportunistic criminals
The
Communications Security Establishment (CSE) has been monitoring what’s
happening online during the pandemic, and has helped to remove fake
sites set up by cybercriminals.
“Opportunistic
cyber threat actors are attempting to take advantage of Canadians’
heightened levels of concern and legitimate fears around COVID-19,” said
CSE spokesperson Ryan Foreman. “They are trying to spread
misinformation and scam Canadians out of their money or private data.
“COVID-19
has presented cybercriminals and fraudsters with an effective lure to
encourage victims to visit fake web sites, open email attachments and
click on text message links. These emails typically impersonate health
organizations, and can even pretend to be from the government of
Canada.”
Health Canada
has the lead on monitoring for misinformation. For example, it is
sending compliance letters to companies it finds making false or
questionable claims about COVID-19.
“It’s
really the Public Health Agency of Canada and Health Canada that have
been, amongst other things, identifying as best as possible some of the
more flagrant examples of misinformation, disinformation,” said LeBlanc.
Last
week, the Canadian Heritage department announced $3 million in grants
to eight groups across the country to combat “false and misleading
COVID-19 information.”
LeBlanc
admits that while the government’s previous work leading up to the
election made Canadians more aware of online misinformation and
disinformation, the structures that it set up were designed with an
election campaign in mind.
“I
think governments around the world were caught, to some extent, by
surprise in terms of the rapidity by which the pandemic spread,” LeBlanc
said, adding that the online misinformation emerged as quickly as the
pandemic itself.
“So
governments in Canada, and I say governments plural … were forced to
stand up very quickly a bunch of measures. I think we’ve done,
comparatively, in Canada very well.”
Angus
said the speed of COVID-19’s spread left the government without a game
plan. Now, he said, it should set up a team to fight misinformation
about the virus.
“I
think it would be reasonable to enact with the RCMP, with our security
officials and some public officials, a team to monitor disinformation
and have the power to shut it down so it does not interfere with the
efforts of our frontline medical workers,” said Angus.
“We need to be taking all measures right now because we don’t know how long we’re going to be in this crisis.”
With files from Katie Nicholson and Jason Ho.
Elizabeth Thompson can be reached at elizabeth.thompson@cbc.ca
Back when he was seeking the leadership of the Conservative Party, Andrew Scheer said he’d cut federal funding to any university that did not actively promote and defend free speech on campus. Bully for him! We applauded him, We noted how tyrannical Justin Trudeau is with his caucus. No dissent on abortion is allowed. All elected Liberals must bark the pro-abortion line or be expelled from the caucus or denied a nomination. No wonder Trudeau is such an admirer, like his father before bhim, of Red China,
Sadly, it didn’t take Andrew Scheer long to change his tune. Lynn Beyak is a feisty senator from Northern Ontario. Last year she begged to dissent from the “residential schools were racist hell holes” politically correct line. That’s part of the Indians good, Whites bad, party line where any Indian shortcomings are blamed on White people, colonialism or Jacques Cartier. She pointed out that many of the poorly paid teachers who tried to give Indian youngsters an education were well meaning and did much good. For that, she was roundly denounced and her own party kicked her off the Aboriginal Affairs Committee.
However, Beyak received many letters from Canadians with on-the-ground experience who knew that the Ottawa White guilt narrative was largely nonsense. She did what so seldom happens: She gave Canadians a voice. She published their letters on her website.
Andrew Scheer demanded that she take one of those letters down. She refused. And now she’s out of the caucus.
The National Post (January 4, 2018) picks up the story: “ Sen. Lynn Beyak, who famously declared “some good” came out of Canada’s residential schools, was removed from the Conservative Party caucus after refusing to remove a “racist” comment from her website, Opposition Leader Andrew Scheer said Thursday . Scheer said in a statement that he had learned on Tuesday that Beyak had posted approximately 100 letters from Canadians in support of her position on residential schools to her Parliamentary website. He said the vast majority of letters focused on the history of residential schools, while others contained comments about Indigenous Canadians in general. The Conservative leader said he had asked Beyak to remove one of the letters that suggested Indigenous People want to get things for “no effort” and she refused, resulting in her removal from caucus. ‘Promoting this comment is offensive and unacceptable for a Conservative Parliamentarian. To suggest that Indigenous Canadians are lazy compared to other Canadians, is simply racist,’ he said.” What’s “racist” about that? The only valid question is whether it’s true or not. While there are many hardworking Indians, for whatever reason, anyone with Northern experience knows there are also many Indians with a poor work ethic. The point is: The comment is an OPINION. It’s debatable. It should not be banned..
One reason this country’s political elite of ALL parties is so out of touch with Canadians is there is a whole range of issues that cannot be mentioned. Suggest that the residential schools were an imperfect but well meaning attempt to bring a Stone Age people into the modern work and it’s: “You shut up!” Suggest that there may be something wrong with an immigration policy which will replace, ethnically cleanse, Canada’s European founding/settler people by 2050, if it’s not changed quickly, and again it’s: “You shut up!”
But Scheer was almost a moderate beside the Red Guard vehemence of NDP MP Charlie Angus who wants the Prime Minister to find a way to kick her out of the Senate. In “tolerant” Canada, some views just cannot be tolerated by the virtue signallers of political correctness: “Sen. Lynn Beyak — newly turfed from the Conservative caucus — is fundamentally unfit to represent the Canadian people, NDP MP Charlie Angus said Friday as he urged Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to use his influence to get her removed from the upper chamber once and for all. In a letter to Trudeau following Beyak’s ouster late Thursday, Angus asks the prime minister to reach out to the independent and Liberal members of the Senate, among others, to convince them to ‘use the tools of the Senate’ to finally put an end to what he calls an “egregious abuse of public office.” (CANADIAN PRESS, Januaryy 5, 2018)’ .
So, giving voice to a politically incorrect OPINION is “an egregious abuse of public office” and anti-democratic!
Sen. Lynn Beyak booted from Conservative caucus over ’racist’ post on website
Andrew Scheer said in a statement that he asked Beyak to remove a ‘racist’ letter from her Parliamentary website regarding Indigenous people and she refused
