The Canadian House of Commons rose for the Winter break. As a result, Canada’s age verification bill got delayed until the new year.
It was quite the political turn of events towards the end of the year for Canada’s age verification legislation. As you already know, Canada’s age verification legislation is also known as Bill S-210. It mandates the use of non-existent technology to compel Canadian’s to fork over huge amounts of highly sensitive personal information to massive databases that have no real enforceable legal protections just to experience the wide open internet. Even worse is that it locks down parts of the internet, giving other lawmakers the green light to lock down even larger portions of the open internet unless you make yourself even more vulnerable to blackmailers and scam artists.
Supporters, for their part, relied on lies and disinformation to try and sell the legislation. Those lies include that the technology needed to carry out the bills mandate of secure and reliable technology (the technology doesn’t exist), that the law protects that highly sensitive information (it doesn’t as there are no real penalties for breaching such laws), and that the legislation cannot be abused to crack down on LGBTQ+ content (supporters have long admitted that this is the whole point of such laws). If lies are the only way to sell a piece of legislation, then it should go without saying that it’s a bad bill that should be scrapped.
Unfortunately, this travesty, at least for a time, seemed like it was destined to become the law of the land. After all, it passed all the readings in the House and the Senate. The only step that was left was for the bill to receive royal assent. As a result, Canadians were bracing for yet another legislative disaster to be unleashed in the online world with the police state becoming increasingly a fact of life. In October, the word was that the legislation was going to receive royal assent in the month of November. So, it seemed all but certain that Canadians were going to take yet another huge loss.
The thing is, as time progressed, the picture suddenly started to change. The Conservative party, who was the party making the big push to see this bill become the law of the land, ironically started filibustering the Canadian government. As a result of that, things got delayed including the Orwellian age verification bill. As a result, the bill got delayed for days. Day became weeks. Weeks became months. Then, the 17th of December came and the House of Commons rose for the Winter break. With the House not sitting, any legislation currently in the process is put on hold.
At absolute minimum, the age verification bill is going to be delayed until 2025 (next year). At that point, well, who knows?
Of course, as political observers know, there’s also another added complication to the picture. The Justin Trudeau Liberal government is facing a huge amount of political turmoil with Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, Chrystia Freeland, resigning. In her resignation letter, she accused the Prime Minister of relying on “gimmicks” that don’t serve the Canadian interest (many speculate that this is in reference to the tax holiday). Another bit of speculation is that she was being asked by the Prime Minister to resign, but also asked to table the Fall Economic Statement on the way out so she could take the fall for blowing past her own financial guard rails she herself put in place. The nastiness of the entire affair has convinced the NDP to call for Trudeau to resign or face a non-confidence vote from the one party widely viewed as propping up the Liberal government. Whatever Trudeau thought he was planning, it clearly blew up in his face.
It’s also worth pointing out that Freeland pushed for CETA back in 2016, an international “trade” agreement that would bring about a whole pile of nasty provisions into law including three strikes laws, anti-circumvention laws, and a whole lot more. So, let’s be realistic here, she’s by no means a saint in all of this, either.
Anyway, the political turmoil means that the odds of an election happening sooner rather than later has greatly increased. If an election happens soon (very likely next year, Conservative political games notwithstanding), and the age verification bill doesn’t receive royal assent somewhere along the line, then this bill could also die on the orderpaper as well. That means that if there is an age verification law to be put in place, it will not only have to wait until after the election is over, but also have to go through the entire legislative process as well. That means the readings in the House and the Senate as well. Who knows? It could also be sent to committee for study again (not impossible).
No matter how you slice it, Canada’s age verification bill is getting delayed again, no matter what. Whether that means getting delayed until the new year. The odds of the bill dying on the oderpaper on top of it all is also increasing. That means Canadians can breath a sigh of relief that this nasty bill isn’t going to become law in the immediate future. In a time where the technological freedoms Canadian’s enjoy taking hit after hit after hit, we can take all the good news we can get at this point.
I have to ask. conisdering Trudeau is likely to prorogate, which as far as I understand it can kill active bills, how would that effect s-210? would that die as well or are there different rules in play there
If there is a proroguing of parliament, that would put a further pause on any legislation that has not received royal assent. It would, indeed, affect Bill S-210 because it can’t move ahead during such a time. As a result, it would increase the chances of it dying on the orderpaper. The final blow, however, would still remain to be an election being called. The moment that happens, if Bill S-210 hasn’t received royal assent by then, then the bill dies.