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Online Liberty And Law: Crimes Canada Loves to Hate
by Matt Friedman
3:00 a.m. 30.Nov.98.PST
http://www.wired.com/news/news/politics/story/16525.htmlive/
MONTREAL -- New plans by the Canadian government to crack down on
hate crimes have civil libertarians up in arms. Even opponents of
hate crimes are diving for cover.
Recommendations issued last week by the Federal, Provincial, and
Territorial Working Group on Diversity, Equality, and Justice would
broaden Canada's existing laws against hate crimes, making it
illegal to possess material "for the purpose of distribution to
promote hate."
The proposed amendments to the Criminal Code of Canada would also
expand the law to apply to hate crimes based on age, gender, or
mental disability. The reforms would prevent a criminal defendant in
a hate-crime trial -- a neo-Nazi who denied that the Holocaust
occurred, for example -- from claiming the freedom to disseminate
material (including hate-crime propaganda) that the defendant
believed to be true.
Ujjal Dosanjh, attorney general of British Columbia and a strong
proponent of the task force, wanted to create new legislation
"designed particularly to combat hate propaganda on the Internet."
The attorney general's office has campaigned for tougher laws since
a highly publicized incident involving a racist Web site earned the
town of Oliver, British Columbia, a reputation as the "hate capital
of Canada."
Dosanjh said the incident demonstrated the need for stronger laws
against hate propagandists.
"We need an offense that's easier to prove," Dosanjh said. "This
amendment will create that offense. Once you intend to promote hate
- that's where the line is drawn."
His reasoning doesn't sit well with civil libertarians, who warn
that existing hate-crime statutes are the only laws on the books that
permit prosecution for holding unpopular opinions.
"The government is going in the wrong direction," said Alan Borovoy,
general counsel for the Canadian Civil Liberties Association. "It
should be repealing, or at least narrowing, the anti-hate
legislation. It's already too broad an enactment."
The proposals continue a trend of eroding Canadian civil liberties,
Borovoy said. "Ever since the government embarked on a course of
trying to outlaw expressions of hatred, it's shown that there is a
slippery slope. One thing has led to another."
Electronic Frontier Canada, an information-rights advocacy group,
agreed. "The proposals reflect the fears in certain constituencies
represented by some of the participants in the working group," said
the group's vice president, Richard Rosenberg. "There seems to be a
notion that you can curtail free speech and society will somehow be
better for it."
The Canadian Jewish Congress (CJC) has praised the reforms, however.
"The law isn't final, but with the wide-ranging approval we've
gotten, it's pretty close," said Bernie Farber, the CJC's national
director of community relations. "We have a concern that the Net
needs some manner of legislation to ensure that it's not used by
hatemongers to promote hate."
Ken McVay, who as president of the Nizkor Project is one of Canada's
most prominent opponents to racism, has a more immediate concern.
Nizkor maintains one of the world's largest online archives of
anti-Semitic material, which is used to fight ignorance and expose
extremism.
"There are neo-Nazis who point to URLs on Nizkor," McVay said.
"That's probably the clearest example of how stupid this is. Is it
'possession with intent' if the propaganda resides on my servers and
some neo-Nazi makes a link to it?"
Elissa Leiff, senior counsel in the Department of Justice's Criminal
Law Policy Section, dismissed any suggestion that activists like
McVay might be burned by the new laws, citing the proposed law's
requirement of an "intent to promote hate."
"It's so hypocritical," McVay replied. "If an idea is so dangerous
in and of itself that you have to legislate against it, then the
whole question of intent is irrelevant. If it's dangerous it's
dangerous whether it's on my site or [white supremacist] Tom
Metzger's."
For supporters of the proposals, however, the possession offense is
just a logical extension of the hate laws already on the books.
"We should be dealing with the most extreme cases, and I'm not sure
these proposals differ from existing laws in that respect," Farber
said. "It remains to be seen how these proposals will be translated
into the language of law, though. There are some areas that have to
be clarified when the law is developed."
Leiff said it's up to the Department of Justice to phrase the
amendments in such a way that they don't violate the Canadian
Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and to present them to Parliament for
debate. She said that was likely to happen sometime next year, and
that she had little doubt that the amendments will become law.
"It's fairly well thought out to date, and it has the support of all
the attorneys general," Leiff said. "I'm sure the legislation will
pass."
Links:
http://redirect.wired.com/redir/10025/http://www.wired.com/news/news/c
ulture/story/11195.html
http://www.ccla.org/d.com/redir/10025/http://www.wired.com/news/news/c
http://www.efc.ca/g/d.com/redir/10025/http://www.wired.com/news/news/c
http://www.cjc.ca/g/d.com/redir/10025/http://www.wired.com/news/news/c
http://www.nizkor.org/com/redir/10025/http://www.wired.com/news/news/c
http://canada.justice.gc.ca/dir/10025/http://www.wired.com/news/news/c
---------------
Also in this issue:
- Vietnam's Net Roadblocks
Have trouble getting work done online? Businesspeople in Vietnam
know just how you feel.
- China Still Has Growing Pains With Internet's Openness
[November 30, 1998--HONG KONG] Despite an apparent desire to see the
Chinese Internet industry expand, the Chinese government is still
having difficulty with the free flow of information on the Web.
- Europe deadlocked over digital signatures
European Union telecommunications ministers have failed to resolve a
row over how strictly to regulate the technology used to create
"electronic signatures," prompting a rebuke from the EU's top
technology official.
- Small Stuff' Affects Web Presence
Don't sweat the small stuff, the saying goes, and I agree with
it-for the most part- whole-heartedly. Of course, what constitutes
"small stuff" to one person might not be that to the next, but hey,
that's what the differences in people is all about. It keeps the
world interesting.
- Coming soon from Livermore Lab: A new 'Net
The Internet as we know it may soon be passé.
- Netizens Will Draft School Ballot Issue
The elections are barely over, but Silicon Valley venture capitalist
Tim Draper is already launching an education-related initiative for
the November 2000 ballot--with the help of the Internet.
- ''Pick and Drop'' technology could replace the mouse
Annoyed by the clutter of mice and keyboards on his desk, a
researcher at the Sony Computer Science Laboratories in Tokyo has
devised a quick and easy way to move files from one computer to
another without touching a mouse or a keyboard.
- Novel on war wins Internet literature prize
It has been some time since literature went high-tech with the
advent of electronic publishing. So it is no surprise that there is
now a prize for Japanese novels published exclusively on the
Internet.
- Online Liberty And Law: Crimes Canada Loves to Hate
MONTREAL -- New plans by the Canadian government to crack down on
hate crimes have civil libertarians up in arms. Even opponents of
hate crimes are diving for cover.
- New Lists and Journals
* NEW: Melancholy- depression support
* CHANGE: Art Journal - A Close Look at Great Art
* CHANGE: Art Journal now monthly
On-line Learning Series of Courses
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