Canada’s ruling Liberal party has announced its plans to make online hate speech a punishable offence. The crime may lead to as much as $20,000 Canadian dollars for the first offence and $50,000 for a second offence.
The proposal would punish social media users who broke the law but exempt social media companies that host such content from fines. This move comes after the murder of a Muslim family in London, Ontario. Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau had called the incident a ‘terrorist attack’ and the assailant, Nathaniel Veltman, a terrorist.
“This was a terrorist attack, motivated by hatred, in the heart of one of our communities,” Trudeau told Parliament, two days after the attack.
Hence why the Canadian government’s measures seem to be aimed at countering rising sentiments of Islamophobia. While the move is being lauded worldwide, it does not apply to the harmful representation of Muslims and Islam in mainstream media which is the cause of rising Islamophobia in the West including Canada.
According to a United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief submitted in November 2020;
“A majority of Canadians – 52% – believe that Muslims cannot be trusted, while 42% feel that discrimination against Muslims – read: racism – is mainly the fault of Muslims themselves.”
The UN findings only affirm more an up word trajectory of violence and racism towards Canadian Muslims. Even as far back as Gallup Poll revealed that 48% of Canadian Muslims and 52 % of American Muslims feel disrespected within their societies. This ‘disrespect’ is largely unreported aggression with only outright violence making the news.
The country is a top-ranking state on liberal and progressives indexes such as the State of World Liberty Index, (add link https://patrickrhamey.com/saturday-research/2020/4/21/2020-state-of-world-liberty-index), the Legatum Prosperity Index, and the Democracy Index (https://www.eiu.com/n/campaigns/democracy-index-2020/).
It is often named among liberal paradises. Yet how true is that when it comes to protection against religious targeting.
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