in mid-April, spontaneous anti-lockdown protests sprang up
across Canada. People attending expressed concerns about many issues, but the
attack on free speech was one of them. As reported last month, Privy Council President Dominic LeBlanc,
a close ally of Justin Trudeau, had
talked about legislation criminalizing spreading misinformation over the Internet about the coronavirus that could harm the public. As
contradictions in the government’s propaganda became obvious — at first, no
restrictions on travel from China (if you made such a proposal, you were a
“racist”)
and
the WHO said face masks do no good
— many began to suspect they’d been deceived. Canadians have been terrified
into accepting lockdowns, restrictions of their mobility rights, restrictions on
their right to earn a living or run a business and even virtual banning of
religious gatherings.
New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island restrict travel by
Canadians to their provinces. In Ontario, one Shanker Nesathurai, medical officer of health for Haldimand and
Norfolk counties issued a public health order (later rescinded when threatened
with of legal action) banning cottagers, under threat of $5,000 fines from
going to the cottages they own on Lake Erie. (National Post, May 16, 2020) The same issue of the Post showed a picture of
menacing signage at Port Stanley on Lake Erie: “Beach Closed. Restricted Area. No trespassing under penalty of
law!” So, people are banned from public beaches. Yet, sunlight helps
kill viruses. Everywhere, swaggering authorities treat Canadian adults like
morons, assuming they will not keep a distance from each other. These and a
host of other abuses and illogical restrictions have motivated thousands of
Canadians to protest. People are concerned about the arbitrary restrictions,
the crashing of the economy, the federal gun grab, and the possibility of
forced vaccination.
There have been
weekly protests in Vancouver and Toronto, Calgary, Edmonton, Ottawa, Hamilton,
and more recently in Kelowna. This list is only partial. The first Toronto
protest, April 25, which drew 50 people provoked an angry Premier Ford to
denounce the protesters, whom he hadn’t met, as “a bunch of yahoos” who were “reckless”.
His reaction is typical of many politicians who believe they should command rather
than listen respectfully to the views of those who elected them. Four weeks
later, the weekly Saturday protest had grown to 400 people. There were almost as many Red Ensign flags fluttering in the warm Spring sunshine as Pearson pennants. People shared many earned concerns — the loss of free speech, Trudau’s opportunistic gun grab, the fear of forced vaccination, and the general joyless herding of the population in a no service, neo-Soviet totalitarianism. Their signs help tell the story.
The Vancouver
“No more lockdown” protests began two weeks earlier than Toronto.
They started with 25 and by May 17, had swelled to 325. B.C. Health Minister Adrian Dix dismissed the protesters as people
with “marginal views. Don’t allow people who are attempting to
promote themselves by using the suffering of others to distract us. Don’t look
at them, but focus on what we need to do together.” (CTV,
April 26, 2020) A fellow NDPer Spencer
Chandra Herbert went further and seemed to want the police to charge or
ticket the protesters. Herbert, who is an outspoken lobbyist for homosexual
rights, is himself homosexual and “married” to one Romi Chandra, stated: “”I’ve
alerted the Ministry of Public Safety
for their information, and reached out to the Vancouver police who have the
responsibility for enforcing orders. I don’t want our community’s safety
threatened by selfish people who won’t do their part to stop COVID-19.”
In Kelowna, led by
longtime freedom activist David Lindsay
under the banner of CLEAR (Common Law
and Education Rights), “end the lockdown” protesters from
throughout the Okanagan Valley rallied in Stuart Park, opposite City Hall, on
May 7. Their numbers had doubled to 40 on May 16 and they plan to be in Stuart
Park every Saturday at noon until the lockdown ends, as will the Vancouver and
Toronto rallies.
Paul Fromm warns us about the Canadian Liberal
Party considering making it a Criminal Offence to Knowingly Spread
Misinformation about just the coronavirus or what? Paul has been the Director of the Canadian Association for Free Expression since 1983.
CAFE is dedicated to Free Speech, Immigration Reform, and Restoring
Political Sanity. The website can be found at http://cafe.nfshost.com
Paul lives in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada and you can contact him at paul@paulfromm.com .
He has been an active leader on the Canadian right for 50 years and
has a steel trap memory so he is a treasure and resource of information
and history.
Marni Soupcoff: Don’t make free speech the next COVID-19 victim in Canada
As we have seen with this pandemic, the government doesn’t – and shouldn’t – have a monopoly on the truth
It’s not difficult to imagine productive things the Canadian
government could be doing to respond to a virus that has caused more
than 1,000 deaths in the country, infected tens of thousands of
Canadians, and shut down the economy.
Passing a law dictating what people can and cannot say about SARS-CoV-2 is not one of those things.
The
government could be using its power to secure personal protective
equipment for health-care workers, facilitate an increase in testing
capacity, and clear regulatory red tape that stands in the way of
efficient vaccine research.
There is no question these steps could
be helpful, and they are just three examples of many. Then, why oh why
are federal politicians instead using their time to make plans to censor
online expression about a pandemic that could use more creative ideas,
not fewer.
Why are federal politicians using their time to make plans to censor online expression?
A sample of what Privy Council President Dominic LeBlanc
has to say on the matter of criminalizing the online spread of ideas
the government deems dangerously untrue: “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.”
Realizing that the people running the country believe that
freedom of speech doesn’t apply — even as a consideration — in cases
where they don’t like the speech in question … well, it’s scary,
especially in the middle of a frightening crisis that makes government
power grabs seem deceptively innocuous.
It sounds great to crack
down on dangerous “cranks” pushing “disinformation.” Until you realize
that a couple of months ago, anyone who was suggesting COVID-19 could
and would spread through community transmission here — a notion Canadian
public health leaders were scoffing at — would have been considered
such a “crank.” Just a couple of weeks ago, anyone stating that wearing a
mask in public was useful in stopping the spread of COVID-19 would also
have been deemed a crackpot by the feds’ standards. Thankfully Mr.
LeBlanc hadn’t yet come up with a law that would have shut them up.
Dominic LeBlanc is embraced by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau after being
sworn in as President of the Privy Council in Ottawa on Nov. 20, 2019.
Blair Gable/Reuters
As we have seen with this pandemic, the government doesn’t
have a monopoly on the truth — it’s barely competent enough to recognize
the truth when the truth is hitting it on the head. Do you really want
that entity to have the power to decide which ideas about COVID-19 are
valid and may be voiced and which ones are wrong and must be punished?
It’s
not necessary to imagine, in the abstract, what sort of damage this
kind of censorship would do. The scenario has already played out in
China.
In December 2019, ophthalmologist Li Wenliang tried to
sound the alarm in China about a mysterious new virus that was causing
SARS-like symptoms. Within days, he was picked up by police and
reprimanded for “making false comments on the Internet.” He died of
COVID-19 six weeks later.
The scenario has already played out in China
A recent report by researchers at the Citizen Lab
at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs and Public
Policy showed that a day after Chinese doctors issued their warning
about the illness, China’s most widely used social media app, WeChat,
quickly blacklisted related terms, including “SARS outbreak in Wuhan”
and “Unknown Wuhan pneumonia.” (WeChat doesn’t have a lot of competition
since the Chinese government blocks access to Facebook and Twitter.)
While
the deadly disease was spreading through China’s Hubei province, WeChat
was censoring instructions and advice about wearing face masks and
washing hands — information that would have saved lives but was deemed
fake news by Chinese authorities at the time.
Doubtless it is
obvious that this is an example Canada should not follow. One man’s
whistleblower is another man’s havoc-wreaking conspiracy theorist.
Allowing one of those men to impose criminal penalties on the other is a
damaging way to deal with the difference.
A lone person walks past closed businesses in Toronto’s Kensington Market on April 15, 2020.
Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press
It is true that there are scammers out there taking
advantage of the fear generated by the pandemic, trying to make a buck
by posing as people or institutions they aren’t.
But it is also true that there are already laws on the books to punish and prevent this foul flavour of fraud.
Don’t
add on a new law that will leave skeptics — a group that has grown in
number as the government’s flubbed response to COVID-19 has become
evident — even more distrustful of government than they already are.
This is
a matter of free speech. And during a pandemic, free speech and the
unimpeded flow of information can mean the difference between life and
death.
Let’s hope the federal government finds safer ways to keep itself busy.
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
