Disaster has struck Canadian free speech and digital first creators. Bill C-11 has passed the 2nd reading 49-19.
Canada is one step closer to abolishing the right to free speech. This after Senators voted to pass the bill in Second reading. While the development is shocking and devastating, it is, nevertheless, not exactly surprising. On multiple occasions, I predicted this outcome. In fact, I predicted this two weeks ago on video. At the time, I knew that corruption is far too rampant within the halls of government, snuffing out common sense and basic logical thinking in the process. When big corporate money is present, it overrules all else including the Canadian Charter.
Notable votes, for those of you who have been following the hearings as closely as we’ve had, this includes the following who voted against this bill: Leo Housakos, Fabian Manning, and Pamela Wallin. As for Senators voting for C-11, we saw the following: Marty Klyne, Julie Miville-Dechene, Rene Cormier, Karen Sorensen, Dennis Dawson, Bernadette Clement, Paula Simons. Donna Dasko.
Probably the most disappointing vote was Senator Paula Simons. It suggests that all of her concerns may have been little more than an act. If she was truly concerned with the bill, I would have expected an abstention from her. Instead, she seems perfectly content with throwing the more than $2.1 billion industry of user generated content under the bus, throwing significant uncertainty for roughly 100,000 creators in the process.
Overall, all of this highlights the Canadian Senates intent of destroying the future of creators everywhere. For them, digital first creators are nothing more than an obstacle to serving the interest of large corporate interests operating in Canada. The future for digital first creators is expendable for the chamber and, indeed, this government. Further, the message is that your career is invalid and to go “get a real job”. Of course, the consequences is that this development throws Canada’s innovative future into further jeopardy. In response, it seems that senators shrugged and simply responded that thinking about the future is only for suckers and losers. While this wasn’t directly said, this is precisely the message that was sent today.
For those who want to see a live recording of Senators destroying your future, you can view the video yourself. Note that the vote takes place at the time stamp of 16:41:00. A speech was delivered by Senator Leo Housakos at 14:55:11 just prior to the vote.
So, the situation is very bad now, what comes next? Well, there’s still the third and final reading at the Senate. What’s more is that the committee study is still ongoing. So, there’s still two more hurdles left to go. While it’s unclear how long it will take for third reading to go, it’s quite possible that Senate committee study will eventually be the only thing standing in the way of the government ruining people’s lives.
Of course, as I commented in my video, it seems like not a matter of “if”, but “when” the government abolishes free speech on social media. As I also commented in the video, this legislation is blatantly unconstitutional with the regulation of user generated content. A court challenge will also be not a question of “if”, but “when” as well. This over top of the numerous other legal vulnerabilities strewn across the bill including a violation of Canada’s international trade obligations.
Probably the only question in all of this is whether the courts will realize the seriously destructive nature of this legislation and quickly implement an injunction to block its enforcement. That really is something that is up in the air because there’s no guarantee that the presiding judge will be technologically up to speed enough to understand the basics in such a case. Really, how quickly this legislation can be blocked from the enforcement stage will dictate just how much damage this bill will inflict.
For now, though, it seems like a losing battle to save free speech in this country at this point. I said way back in the video that the votes were in long before the first hearing was conducted. Judging by the reaction from others on social media, other people watching this are now starting to come to this conclusion as well.
(via @mgeist)
Drew Wilson on Twitter: @icecube85 and Facebook.
