Anthony Furey: The Problem With Defining ‘Online Harms’

Commentary We’ve had this debate before. The free speech advocates won. But a long time has passed since Canada recognized that it’s not up to the government to police legal things people write and say online, offensive or otherwise. Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty, and so here we find ourselves again having to sound the alarm so that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s problematic Online Harms Act doesn’t become the thing to harm us. Back in 2007, author and broadcaster Mark Steyn faced a high-profile case as a defendant before multiple human rights tribunals across Canada. Steyn had written essays touching upon Islam in Maclean’s magazine. A lot of people read them. Some agreed with the articles. Others disagreed. Steyn was accused of Islamophobia in the complaints....