Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberals on Wednesday acknowledged stiff opposition to their proposal to regulate legal internet content. Attorney General Arif Virani said a censor bill will be split to focus on issues that “should be a priority for everybody,” per Blacklock’s Reporter. “We as a government are making the determination to divide this bill into two parts,” Virani told reporters.“Our goal is to work to find consensus amongst parliamentarians on the things that we can agree to immediately.”Virani on February 26 introduced Bill C-63 An Act To Enact The Online Harms Act. It followed a failed 2021 attempt to censor legal internet content. The latest bill is still awaiting Second Reading in the Commons.A maximum 15 weeks remain on the parliamentary calendar before the next election. “I am seeking the support of all parliamentarians so we can move forward,” said Virani..‘Online Harms’ bill, Feds pushing for compliance from big tech.The new version of Bill C-63 would join Part One and Part Four to toughen child pornography laws and appoint a Digital Safety Ombudsman to monitor harmful content like sexual victimization.“Protecting kids from violent threats, from child sex predators, and from things like revenge porn should be a priority for everybody,” said Virani.A second bill would join Part Two and Part Three to restrict legal but hurtful speech “likely to foment detestation or vilification of an individual or group” with the Canadian Human Rights Commission mandated to investigate complaints. Virani acknowledged the latter provisions were more contentious.“These bills will proceed on different tracks,” said Virani.“We are putting our emphasis and prioritization and our time and efforts on the first portion of the bill which deals with child sex predators.”“Why didn’t you do that in September?” asked a reporter.“People have been suggesting for me to do this,” replied Virani.“What other changes are you going to make within the new bills?” asked a reporter. “When this gets to committee I’m perfectly willing to have a deep and detailed study. We will hear from witnesses and if they have suggestions about amendments that will improve the bill, that will be entertained.”“Obstruction has caused us to rethink how we can better use the precious time that we have left in this Parliament.”“I’m not going to look at the face of Canadian parents and Canadian children and tell them that I’m not going to do everything I can to protect those kids who are at pain of potential violence to themselves, including death by suicide, by not prioritizing what I can in this legislation.”.UPDATED: PBO says Liberals’ 'online harms’ act to cost $200 million; Poilievre vows to kill it.The splitting of Bill C-63 comes six months after a lead critic of the censorship provisions, Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner, predicted it was unlikely to pass as is.“The government is close to the end of its mandate and does not have a lot of public support across the country,” Rempel Garner told the Commons June 8.Academics, civil libertarians and free speech advocates have condemned federal attempts to regulate lawful internet communication. Hate speech has been illegal in Canada since 1970.“Proposals fail to account for the importance of protecting the kinds of expression that are most central to a free and democratic society including journalism, academic scholarship and public interest research, debate, artistic creation, criticism and political dissent,” the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab wrote in a 2021 submission to the Department of Canadian Heritage.The Ontario Civil Liberties Association called federal proposals to regulate legal content “astonishing.”.UPDATED: Liberals introduce ‘online harms’ legislation
