The Liberals censorious Bill C-63 An Act to Enact the Online Harms Act on Monday lapsed with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s move to prorogue Parliament, marking the second failed bill of its kind. The government censorship bill is among others in a laundry list of legislation. The end of the parliamentary sitting also quashed ongoing Commons committee investigations into federal management, per Blacklock’s Reporter. The bill to censor legal internet content was the second time in four years that cabinet tried and failed to regulate blogs, Facebook posts, and other social media deemed hurtful. “The fact is, despite best efforts to work through it, Parliament has been paralyzed for months,” Trudeau told reporters on Monday. He prorogued Parliament until March 24, killing all private bills and requiring that any lapsed cabinet bills may only be revived by majority vote. “There will be confidence votes in March,” said Trudeau..NOTEBOOK: Justin Trudeau resigns, reaction from across Canada.Bill C-63 would have restricted legal internet speech deemed “likely to foment detestation or vilification of an individual or group” with the Canadian Human Rights Commission mandated to investigate complaints.The bill was introduced last February 26 and never passed Second Reading in the Commons.Attorney General Arif Virani on December 4 pleaded with MPs to pass the bill.“I am seeking the support of all parliamentarians so we can move forward,” Virani told reporters.“Obstruction has caused us to rethink how we can better use the precious time that we have left in this Parliament.”The attorney general in testimony last March 21 at the Commons Justice Committee went further in telling MPs the internet “frankly terrifies me” and should be regulated.“It brings unchecked dangers and horrific content,” testified Virani.“This frankly terrifies me. We need to make the internet safe.”.Tories introduce new internet crime bill to counter Liberals’ censorious Bill C-63 .Conservative MPs and free speech advocates opposed Bill C-63. A similar Bill C-36 An Act To Amend The Criminal Code lapsed in 2021.“The government is close to the end of its mandate and does not have a lot of public support across the country,” Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner told the Commons last June 7.Internet regulation “would not likely become law,” she predicted.Prorogation of Parliament on Monday killed numerous private bills near final passage. Lost measures included:• S-210 requiring that internet pornographers restrict access to minors;• C-252 to restrict fast food ads targeting children;• C-275 to ban animal rights activists or other trespassers from private barns or pens;• C-320 mandating disclosure of criminals’ parole dates to victims and their families;• C-321 to designate as an aggravating factor in criminal sentencing the assault of a paramedic, nurse or any other health care provider.Lapsed inquiries included hearings into a proposed $17.4 billion capital gains tax increase, the “rise in violent crime,” some $150 million worth of inside dealing at Sustainable Development Technology Canada, suspected Chinese espionage at the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg and Canada’s conduct in the 2021 collapse of Afghanistan.
