Justin Ling: ‘Canada’s New Anti-Terror Bill Is Everything You Hoped It Wasn’t’

I don’t necessarily trust Justin Ling, but no one who cares about freedom of speech can fail to be concerned about these provisions:

What may prove the most controversial part of the bill is the provision allowing police to order what the government deems terrorist propaganda taken off the internet, and allowing the authors of websites calling for terrorist attacks to be arrested and hit with significant jail time.

Police will be able to issue takedown notices, subject to the approval of a judge, to force website hosts based in Canada to destroy comments, blogs, or webpages that are found to promote or glorify terrorist organizations or attacks. People who have posted such material will be allowed to appear in court and defend their postings, although they will open themselves up to self-incrimination if they do so. If they don’t appear in court, the judge can decide to order the information to be deleted anyway.

Promoting terrorist attacks on a website could also net you up to five years in prison. The bill says that if someone intentionally advocates or promotes terrorism, “knowing or reckless as to whether it would result in terrorism,” it is a crime.