Trudeau Begins Second Term With Crackdown On 'Hate Speech,' Ban On Conversion Therapy

Justin Trudeau has told four of his cabinet ministers in his mandate letters to them that they are tasked with regulating online hate speech. Trudeau told the new heritage minister that he’s to “create new regulations for social media platforms, starting with a strong requirement that all platforms remove illegal content, including hate speech, within 24 hours or face significant penalties.” Except Trudeau doesn’t include a definition of “hate speech,” nor does he direct the heritage minister to come up with a definition.

True North’s Andrew Lawton, who covered the government’s online hate study last year, warns this could be the return of a supercharged version of section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act, meaning a limitation of free speech.

LGBT+ conversion therapy could soon be banned across Canada after Justin Trudeau made this one of the priorities for his new government.

In a letter to the country’s justice secretary on Friday, the prime minister stated that banning the controversial practice of attempting to forcibly change people’s gender or sexuality must be a “top priority”.

He said the Minister of Justice and Attorney General David Lametti must work to ”amend the Criminal Code to ban the practice of conversion therapy and take other steps required with the provinces and territories to end conversion therapy in Canada”.