The Canadian government is proposing a bill that would raise the maximum punishment for online hate speech from five years to a life sentence.

The proposal forms part of the latest Online Harms Bill, put forward by Justin Trudeau's left-wing government, which seeks to its assert control over online discourse:

The National Post reports:

Bill C-63 aims to force social-media, user-uploaded adult content and live-streaming services to reduce exposure to online content deemed harmful, to strengthen the reporting of child pornography and to better address hate propaganda and provide recourse to victims of hate online.

It also amends the Criminal Code to create a new standalone hate crime offence that would allow penalties up to life imprisonment to deter hateful conduct, as well as raise the maximum punishments for hate propaganda offences from five years to life imprisonment for advocating genocide.

Some of those provisions, including a clampdown on child pornography and other adult content, are obviously noble causes. Yet it is the definition of what the government calls "hate propaganda" that should cause all conservatives concern. 

As we have seen countless times in the last decade, what the liberal establishment believes is "hate speech" is often just a method of silencing and punishing those in vocal opposition to their progressive ideology. 

Even the definition of "genocide" is regularly warped by the left, many of whom frame opposition to transgenderism as a demand that everyone suffering from gender dysphoria be wiped from the face of the earth. The actual term genocide refers to an effort to destroy a national, ethinic, racial or religious group. 

Among those speaking in favor of the bill was the country's Justice Minister, Arif Virani, who argued that as a Muslim he feels "terrified" by some of the rhetoric we see online: 

I’m the father of two youngsters and, like parents and grandparents around Canada, I’m terrified by the dangers that lurk on the internet for our children. 

I’m also a Muslim. The hatred that festers online is radicalizing people and that radicalization has real world impacts for my community, and for so many other communities.

The legislation also involves the creation of a Digital Safety Commission tasked with enforcing regulations and ensuring online platforms adhere to all the rules. It will also establish the role of a Digital Safety Ombudsperson role responsible for "championing user interests, offering support, and issuing recommendations to both social media platforms and governmental bodies."

Earlier this month, RedState also reported how the Canadian state is also planning to outlaw speaking in favor of fossil fuels by making it illegal promote them "in a manner that states or suggests that a fossil fuel or the practices of a producer or of the fossil fuel industry would lead to positive outcomes in relation to the environment, the health of Canadians, reconciliation with Indigenous peoples or the Canadian or global economy." 

In the U.S., the beauty of the First Amendment of the Constitution is that despite the left's best efforts, such authoritarian laws could never be implemented in America. That is, of course, until the left takes back control of the U.S. Supreme Court. So enjoy your freedom while it lasts.