Canada’s attorney general justifies arrests for ‘thought crimes’ under Trudeau’s Online Harms Act

The provision enables anyone to initiate action against someone he or she believes may commit a “hate propaganda offense or hate crime.”

The Online Harms Act, introduced last week in the House of Commons as Bill C-63, indicates:

"Fear of hate propaganda offence or hate crime: (1) A person may, with the Attorney General’s consent, lay an information before a provincial court judge if the person fears on reasonable grounds that another person will commit; (a)an offence under section 318 or any of subsections 319(1) to (2.‍1); or (b) an offence under section 320.‍1001."

Justice Minister and Attorney General Arif Virani recently tried to justify the thought crime measure that would force a potential hate crime violator to wear an electronic tag or be banished to house arrest.

Virani told The Globe and Mail that while it is important that this power be “calibrated carefully,” it might prove “very, very important” to impede the actions of anyone deemed to have demonstrated hateful behavior in the past or who has criticized any particular person or groups.

If “there’s a genuine fear of an escalation, then an individual or group could come forward and seek a peace bond against them and to prevent them from doing certain things,” Virani said.

Virani explained that the peace bond restraining the freedom of the person committing the thought crime could be used to keep the accused from visiting a synagogue or mosque or just restrict their use of the internet.

“That would help to deradicalize people who are learning things online and acting out in the real world violently – sometimes fatally,” Virani told The Globe.

The Online Harms Act, while ostensibly seeking to “protect all people in Canada from hatred,” would create a definition of “hatred,” increase existing penalties for “hate propaganda offenses” and promulgate a unique Criminal Code entry for a “hate crime offense” while offering new “remedies” for violating online hate speech within the Canadian Human Rights Act.

Being guilty of a “hate crime offense” could lead to imprisonment for life. The bill re-establishes the power of human rights tribunals to convict people of hate speech and hate propaganda under the Canadian Human Rights Act. The maximum fine if found guilty would be $70,000.

The legislation would also create an online censorship czar, dubbed a “digital safety ombudsperson” under a new federal government department called the Digital Safety Committee of Canada.