For a while now, I have expressed concerns with Canada’s plans to regulate internet content. Over the past month, those concerns have not been assuaged.<\/p>\n
I do not believe, and have never subscribed to the view, that the internet should be a lawless platform, immune from application of laws. “Taming the wild west”<\/a> is a post of mine from March 2006. My concern has been in crafting and attempting to tailor new laws and creating new standards of acceptable behaviour for digital media. We have laws and a body of jurisprudence in their application to the analog world. <\/p>\n A recent editorial<\/a> in the Sunday New York Times was entitled “Canada\u2019s Trucker Protests Are a Test of Democracy” [February 13, 2022<\/a>]. “We disagree with the protesters\u2019 cause, but they have a right to be noisy and even disruptive. Protests are a necessary form of expression in a democratic society, particularly for those whose opinions do not command broad popular support.”<\/p>\n From their vantage point in New York, or from my suburban home in the Toronto area, I acknowledge that it is a lot easier to comment on the inconveniences and disruptions to everyday life in Ottawa from horns and street closures. As the Times writes, “The challenge for public officials is to maintain a balance between public health and safety and a functioning society, with the right to free expression.” <\/p>\n Where do we draw the line? I’m not sure about the line itself, but it seems to me we witnessed some examples of “free expression” that are pretty clearly on the wrong side of the line. Protests that disrupts border crossings, at a cost in the order of half a billion dollars a day in trade, crossed the line, in my view. Protests that close a major vaccine centre in Ottawa crossed the line, in my view. Defecating on the porch of a private residence crossed the line, in my view. <\/p>\n A few weeks ago, I wrote, “It seems to me that how Canada deals with the Ottawa protest can be a barometer for how Canadians might view government intervention in online content.”<\/p>\n It seems to me that how Canada deals with the Ottawa protest can be a barometer for how Canadians might view government intervention in online content.<\/p>\n Support for "Freedom of Expression" and "Freedom of Peaceful Assembly" is easy & cheap when you agree with what is being said.<\/p>\n — Mark Goldberg (@Mark_Goldberg) January 28, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n \n