Now that Trudeau has announced his intent to resign and prorogue Parliament until March, there is a good chance his now-infamous 'Online Harms' bill will be scrapped.
(LifeSiteNews) –– An internet censorship bill which would have censored legal online content posted on social media through burdensome regulations is likely dead now that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has prorogued Parliament until the end of March.
Bill C-63, known as the Online Harms Act, was put forth under the guise of protecting children from exploitation online but also sought to expand the scope of “hate speech” prosecutions, and even desired to target such speech retroactively and preemptively.
The bill had called for the creation of a Digital Safety Commission, a digital safety ombudsperson, and a Digital Safety Office, all tasked with policing internet content. It was blasted by constitutional experts as troublesome.
Due to Trudeau announcing on Monday morning that he plans to step down as Liberal Party leader once a new leader has been chosen, Parliament has been shut down. This means all bills, committees and other meetings have all been canceled.
In Canada, the procedure of proroguing Parliament, which is not often used, must first be approved by Governor General Mary Simon. On Monday, she granted Trudeau's request to prorogue Parliament until the end of March as the Liberals select a new leader.
Canada’s House of Commons procedure and practice reads, “Bills which have not received Royal Assent before prorogation are 'entirely terminated' and to be proceeded with in the new session, must be reintroduced as if they had.”
“On occasion, however, bills have been reinstated by motion at the start of a new session at the same stage they had reached at the end of the previous session; committee work has similarly been revived.”
The likelihood of bills being “reinstated” via a motion is highly unlikely, as come March when Parliament resumes, the government will likely fall, as all opposition parties have promised to vote no-confidence in the Liberal government.
Bill C-63 bill’s “hate speech” section is accompanied by broad definitions, severe penalties, and dubious tactics, including levying preemptive judgments against people if they are feared to be likely to commit an act of “hate” in the future.
Details from the now-defunct Bill C-63 showed the bill could lead to more people jailed for life for “hate crimes” or fined $50,000 and jailed for posts that the government defines as “hate speech” based on gender, race, or other categories.
Bill C-63 was panned by many as being so flawed it would “never” be enforced.
Other bills that are now likely dead include the highly criticized “pandemic prevention and preparedness” Bill C-293, which sought to give sweeping powers to the government in future so-called emergencies, and the Senate's S-210 bill, which claimed to want to prevent children from accessing online pornography but could have also ushered in a totalitarian digital ID system according to critics.
The last time Trudeau prorogued Parliament was in 2020 when he was under scrutiny for the WE charity scandal.
