Online Harms Act not about ‘insults launched from a smartphone’: minister

Justice Minister Arif Virani is defending against criticism that the Liberals’ sweeping new online harms bill could have a chilling effect on free speech.

Virani says the legislation is not about censoring “insults launched from a smartphone” but instead giving victims and law enforcement more tools to respond to a rising tide of hate in Canada.

“We’re not talking about insulting, offensive remarks or bad jokes. We’re talking about things like calling for the extermination of a people,” the justice minister told host Mercedes Stephenson in an interview on The West Block.

Bill C-63, tabled Monday, focuses mainly on protecting children against sexual abuse and exploitation on the internet.

The legislation also includes new measures targeting hate crimes.

But some legal experts call the proposed changes overly broad and warn they will stifle debate.

“It’s very difficult to know where the line is between controversial speech and speech that is actually said hateful,” Josh Dehaas, a lawyer with the Canadian Constitution Foundation, said in an interview with Global News this week.

The Canadian Civil Liberties Association, meanwhile, says the bill represents a “serious clampdown on freedom of expression.”

“There are a lot of ways we’re concerned about limiting people’s expression, limiting people’s privacy, limiting people’s liberty,” CCLA executive director Noa Mendelsohn Aviv said on Wednesday.

If passed, the legislation would change the Human Rights Act to make posting hate speech online a form of discrimination. Anyone found guilty by the Canadian Human Rights Commission would be ordered to pay $20,000.

The bill would also usher in tougher sentences for hate propaganda crimes like advocating genocide, which could carry life in