Canadian MP wants to cleanse the Internet with the scratchy sponge of censorship

By Nate Anderson
ArsTechnica
Apr. 24, 2007

Canadian MP Joy Smith introduced a new bill this week designed to cleanse the Internet of child pornography, racial hatred, and material that promotes violence against women. All noble goals, to be sure, but the cure might be almost as bad as the disease: Smith's plan calls for government censorship and the licensing of all ISPs in the country.

Bill C-427, also known as the "Clean Internet Act," sets up a Canadian licensing regime that every ISP in the country must be a part of. The license is required in order to offer Internet services, and it can be revoked under a bizarre set of conditions. For instance, the government may cancel a license if any director or officer of the ISP in question is found guilty of "an offense under the Criminal Code in the commission of which a woman is the victim of physical violence."

Consider this for a moment. Imagine that you get your Internet connection through Rogers. If any director or officer of Rogers punches his wife in a domestic dispute, the company loses its license to offer Internet service to all Canadians. While punching one's wife is certainly a terrible thing, it's an offense that the law already penalizes, and cutting off Internet access to thousands of people uninvolved in the incident seems an odd way to go about controlling violence against women.

The bill also requires ISPs to deny service to anyone who has committed one of the offenses (child pornography, racial hatred, violence against women) within the last seven years. Expose yourself in a public park? You can't get Internet access for seven years.

ISPs must also respond to any request from the Minister of Industry, who can designate "any material on the Internet" off-limits after a "reasonable inquiry" if it falls into one of the proscribed categories.

In a statement issued when she introduced the bill on Wednesday, Smith said, "In an age when the Internet is increasingly being used for criminal and exploitive purposes, it is the responsibility of parents and all Canadians to protect our vulnerable citizens. This Clean Internet Act is one more step towards ending violence and exploitation of women and children in Canada and abroad."

Canadian law professor Michael Geist notes that the bill has little chance of passing, though Smith is unlikely to give up on the measure. The Conservative MP sits on the "Status of Women" committee and has "worked tirelessly in Canada, Israel, Ukraine, the U.S.A. and elsewhere to combat the exploitation of women and children," according to her official biography. She considers the Internet one of the "primary tools" used to foster race hatred and violence.