With over a million views, an X post by Canada's Foreign Policy account claims foreign regimes might be silencing Canadians.Canada's Foreign Policy account stated: "Dissenting voices disappearing from your feed? It might not be an accident.""Some foreign regimes silence critics through takedowns, legal threats and intimidation campaigns." "Learn their tactics and #ThinkBeforeYouShare.".Following the post is a context note added by X reminding users that the feds are currently processing Bill C-9, the Combating Hate Act, which would "criminalize forms of protected speech and protest."The bill has already passed the first two readings and is currently in the committee consideration stage. Another committee hearing for the bill was supposed to happen last week but was canceled by the committee's Liberal chairperson, James Maloney.The post claims "foreign regimes work behind the scenes to mass report posts, trigger takedowns, coordinate harassment, and file baseless legal threats until critics silence themselves."."When the dissent goes quiet, the truth goes with it," the post concludes. However, the link the feds provide in the post brings users to the government website on "Combatting foreign disinformation and information manipulation" where it claims foreign campaigns can either spread "disinformation" or "information manipulation."They claim information manipulation is when foreign entities control the information of consumers.Stating, among other things, foreign groups may attempt "efforts to censor or coerce self-censorship of information.".With this warning given by the feds, an equally contradictory action can be seen in the implications of Bill C-9.As Pascal Anglehart reacts to the post on X, "You mean like Canadian 'hate speech' laws?""Yeah, we’re familiar with that concept."The bill would make "hate-motivated crimes a specific offence, ensuring such conduct is more clearly denounced and that offenders are held accountable."In the bill, a "crime motivated by hatred" is an offence "motivated by hatred based on race, national or ethnic origin, language, colour, religion, sex, age, mental or physical disability, sexual orientation or gender identity or expression."."Bill C-9 expands the criminal law into the realm of expression in ways that risk unjustified violations of the Charter right to free expression," stated Christine Van Geyn, lawyer and the Canadian Constitution Foundation's (CCF) litigation director, to the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights during its consideration of Bill C-9."It lowers the threshold for hate propaganda offences, removes safeguards against politicized or abusive prosecutions, introduces vague new offences and risks killing lawful debate in Canada."According to the National Post, the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops recently attempted to appeal to Prime Minister Mark Carney to reconsider the Liberals support for removing religious defences from the bill.The amendment to remove these defences from the bill was proposed by the Bloc Québécois, and if the Liberals were to support the amendment — they would receive the Bloc's help in passing the bill.
