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Joanna Baron and Dan Delmar: Government censorship is the wrong answer to society’s growing antisemitism

Commentary

People listen to speeches during a demonstration against antisemitism in Berlin, Germany, on Oct. 22, 2023. Markus Schreiber/AP Photo.

When the federal government presented its plan to regulate and censor online speech via the Online Harms Act, Justice Minister Arif Virani was proudly flanked by representatives of the country’s most prominent Jewish and Muslim advocacy organizations, a signal that the minister had the support of two minority groups targeted frequently for hate.

The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA), however, as well as other Canadian Jewish organizations like B’nai Brith Canada and the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center, appear to have gotten cold feet once they caught wind of the type of bureaucrat the Liberal government sees fit to police speech.

No government should put itself in a position to censor its citizens’ “hate speech,” an amorphous concept that has been inadequately tested by Canadian courts and thus leads to very few charges and even fewer convictions. Furthermore, no Jew should purport to speak for Canada’s Jews when they work in tandem with governments to censor ordinary bigots; the Online Harms Act in fact undermines both Jewish and Western legal traditions.

For Jews who value free speech traditions, even those protecting the rights of our ostensible enemies, it should come as no surprise then that the antiracist bureaucrat chosen to administer the newly expanded censorship mandate of the Canadian Human Rights Commission is, as they say, problematic.

Proposed nominee Birju Dattani, who will have powers to hear complaints of online hate speech from any member of the public and impose up to $20,000 in fines, has a history that suggests an obvious bias against Israel, and by extension the majority of Jews who support its existence.

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