WATCH: Guilbeault defends censorship bill by citing Trudeau government-funded groups

Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault attempted to advocate for his controversial Bill C-10, citing multiple Canadian cultural organizations as supporters. Guilbeault failed to mention, however, is that many of the organizations he listed were recipients of government funding.

According to True North, at least four of the nearly dozen organizations listed by Guilbeault receive funding from the Trudeau Liberals.

The controversial bill, which has been called an attack on democracy by former CRTC vice-chair Peter Menzies, was put on hold on Monday after the Heritage Committee decided to summon Guilbeault to explain the bill.

True North reports that the Professional Music Publishers Association of Canada received $10,631 by Guilbeault's department as recently as March of this year.

Another group, the Quebec English Language Production Council via the Quebec Community Groups Network, was given over $5,000,000 from Heritage Canada between 2017 and 2019.

The bill has been widely criticized by the Conservative Party, and by former CRTC vice-chair Peter Menzies, who says the bill would "impose itself on the free expression rights of Canadians by making their posts subject to government oversight."

"It leaves most definitions regarding scope and indeed of social media itself entirely up to the CRTC and its nine appointed commissioners," Menzies said, according to Blacklock's Reporter.

"Overall it ensures that going forward all Canadians communicating over the internet will do so under the guise of the state. In doing so, this opens a door that in my view should remain closed," he continued.

"It creates two classes of communicators in Canada, government approved and non-government approved. And government approved will get better access and be dominant, and the government-unapproved won't."

Guilbeault insisted that the bill would not affect individuals, yet said that accounts with "millions of viewers" that are "generating a lot of money on social media" would be counted as broadcasters under the bill and could be subject to regulation, but has not specify a threshold number despite repeated questioning.