A sample of what Privy Council President Dominic LeBlanc<\/a>\n has to say on the matter of criminalizing the online spread of ideas \nthe government deems dangerously untrue: \u201cThis is not a question of \nfreedom of speech. This is a question of people who are actually \nactively working to spread disinformation, whether it\u2019s through troll \nbot farms, whether (it\u2019s) state operators or whether it\u2019s really \nconspiracy theorist cranks who seem to get their kicks out of creating \nhavoc.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Realizing that the people running the country believe that\n freedom of speech doesn\u2019t apply \u2014 even as a consideration \u2014 in cases \nwhere they don\u2019t like the speech in question \u2026 well, it\u2019s scary, \nespecially in the middle of a frightening crisis that makes government \npower grabs seem deceptively innocuous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It sounds great to crack \ndown on dangerous \u201ccranks\u201d pushing \u201cdisinformation.\u201d Until you realize \nthat a couple of months ago, anyone who was suggesting COVID-19 could \nand would spread through community transmission here \u2014 a notion Canadian\n public health leaders were scoffing at \u2014 would have been considered \nsuch a \u201ccrank.\u201d Just a couple of weeks ago, anyone stating that wearing a\n mask in public was useful in stopping the spread of COVID-19 would also\n have been deemed a crackpot by the feds\u2019 standards. Thankfully Mr. \nLeBlanc hadn\u2019t yet come up with a law that would have shut them up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As we have seen with this pandemic, the government doesn\u2019t \nhave a monopoly on the truth \u2014 it\u2019s barely competent enough to recognize\n the truth when the truth is hitting it on the head. Do you really want \nthat entity to have the power to decide which ideas about COVID-19 are \nvalid and may be voiced and which ones are wrong and must be punished?<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s\n not necessary to imagine, in the abstract, what sort of damage this \nkind of censorship would do. The scenario has already played out in \nChina.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In December 2019, ophthalmologist Li Wenliang tried to \nsound the alarm in China about a mysterious new virus that was causing \nSARS-like symptoms. Within days, he was picked up by police and \nreprimanded for \u201cmaking false comments on the Internet.\u201d He died of \nCOVID-19 six weeks later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The scenario has already played out in China\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/a>\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n A recent report by researchers at the Citizen Lab \nat the University of Toronto\u2019s Munk School of Global Affairs and Public \nPolicy showed that a day after Chinese doctors issued their warning \nabout the illness, China\u2019s most widely used social media app, WeChat, \nquickly blacklisted related terms, including \u201cSARS outbreak in Wuhan\u201d \nand \u201cUnknown Wuhan pneumonia.\u201d (WeChat doesn\u2019t have a lot of competition\n since the Chinese government blocks access to Facebook and Twitter.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n While\n the deadly disease was spreading through China\u2019s Hubei province, WeChat\n was censoring instructions and advice about wearing face masks and \nwashing hands \u2014 information that would have saved lives but was deemed \nfake news by Chinese authorities at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Doubtless it is \nobvious that this is an example Canada should not follow. One man\u2019s \nwhistleblower is another man\u2019s havoc-wreaking conspiracy theorist. \nAllowing one of those men to impose criminal penalties on the other is a\n damaging way to deal with the difference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is true that there are scammers out there taking \nadvantage of the fear generated by the pandemic, trying to make a buck \nby posing as people or institutions they aren\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But it is also true that there are already laws on the books to punish and prevent this foul flavour of fraud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Don\u2019t\n add on a new law that will leave skeptics \u2014 a group that has grown in \nnumber as the government\u2019s flubbed response to COVID-19 has become \nevident \u2014 even more distrustful of government than they already are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is<\/em>\n a matter of free speech. And during a pandemic, free speech and the \nunimpeded flow of information can mean the difference between life and \ndeath.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let\u2019s hope the federal government finds safer ways to keep itself busy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2022 Email: soupcoff@gmail.com<\/a> | Twitter: <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Marni Soupcoff: Don’t make free speech the next COVID-19 victim in Canada As we have seen with this pandemic, the government doesn\u2019t \u2013 and shouldn’t \u2013 have a monopoly on the truth It\u2019s not difficult to imagine productive things the … Continue reading ![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/nationalpostcom.files.wordpress.com\/2020\/04\/leblanc.jpg?w=640&quality=60&strip=all\")
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