Canadian government plans to outlaw internet LINKING

[Mark Fournier]

<center>Canadian government plans to outlaw internet linking
<a href="http://www.parl.gc.ca/About/Parliament/LegislativeSummaries/bills_ls.asp?Language=E&ls=c51&source=library_prb&Parl=40&Ses=3"> Bill C-51: Investigative Powers for the 21st Century Act</a></center>

One of Prime Minister Stephen Harper's campaign promises was that he would pass the Investigative Powers for the 21st Century Act within 100 days of his May 2, 2011 election. This bill contains some of the most dangerous and oppressive sections in Canadian law.

One example of the dangers of this bill is:
<blockquote>Clause 5 of the bill provides that the offences of public incitement of hatred and wilful promotion of hatred may be committed by any means of communication and include making hate material available, by creating a hyperlink that directs web surfers to a website where hate material is posted...</blockquote>

Hyperlinks are at the very core of the internet, they are what enables every internet user to view any available page on the internet and direct others to view pages. This bill will put the control of all hyperlinks into the hands of government bureaucrats and put all Canadian internet users in legal jeopardy.

This clause essentially makes any Canadian posting a link on the internet legally responsible for the content of any web page linked to even though the person posting the link has no control over the content of that page. If the person who does control the page you've linked to changes the pages content you are still legally responsible because you posted a link.

This will make it unsafe for any Canadian to post a link to any page on the internet that he does not control.

This bill will also make it impossible for any Canadian to operate a forum or a blog that allows for public comments. Even if a blogger vets every posted link on his blog with a bevy of lawyers at his side he still will be held legally liable if the content of the outside web pages changes. The only way to safely operate a blog will be to disallow links to other sites and pages.

Beyond the dangers of this bill as it is supposed to function lies the massive potential for abuse by government agents and private individuals. A person who dislikes you for political, competitive or personal reasons could easily set you up with legal problems. Using readily available proxy servers and disposable emails anyone could set up a simple webpage outside of Canada with a theme of “I hate [enter favoured group here] and then post a link to it on your forum or blog. A screen shot of both the created page and the hyperlink on your page is all the evidence needed to show the new law has been violated.

The immediate and potential dangers of this law cannot be overstated.

Beware of government censors posing as agents for law and order.

This bill will be part of the Crime Bill that the Conservatives intend to pass within 100 days.

Don't let that happen!

[Darren]

Surely the Supreme Court can't allow this to stand. It's preposterous. It makes the web virtually inoperable. Show me a website that doesn't contain links to other sites. It's how internet traffic moves. It's completely crazy. Most websites (this one included) allow users to create their own links. How is a site administrator supposed to control that?

Are they literally trying to shut down the web in Canada? Did I wake up in Iran or something? I feel like I'm in a friggin' Kafka novel.

[RedDog]

The sides of the TSN site are filled with car, hotel and airline ads, I notice aimed at my web visit habits. How far does this go? Would these UK Ford car ad links be "hate" toward animals or worthy of legal action by bird or wildlife lovers?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBA1Y-u5PhI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dzi_8Rscfs&NR=1

[backhoe]

"Canadian government plans to outlaw internet linking "

WTF? You guys need to get your freedom back.

Don't make me come up there...

[Mark Fournier]

This is only part of the problem with this bill. There are so many that I'm going to be writing a series of articles to cover them.

[doggedlyright]

Clause 5 of the bill provides that the offences of public incitement of hatred and wilful promotion of hatred may be committed by any means of communication and include making hate material available, by creating a hyperlink that directs web surfers to a website where hate material is posted...

Mark

Is that "Hate" as determined by the HRC? Does that make organizations that promote Israel via hyperlinks, hate promoters in the eyes of people or other organizations that do not like Israel?

or does this provision give more work to the Human rights tribuanls?

Just asking!!!

[Mark Fournier]

Surely the Supreme Court can't allow this to stand. It's preposterous. It makes the web virtually inoperable. Show me a website that doesn't contain links to other sites. It's how internet traffic moves. It's completely crazy. Most websites (this one included) allow users to create their own links. How is a site administrator supposed to control that?

Are they literally trying to shut down the web in Canada? Did I wake up in Iran or something? I feel like I'm in a friggin' Kafka novel.

Ultimately the Supreme Court will have to strike it down but how many lives will be ruined before they do, just as with the thought crimes section of the Canadian Human Rights Act.

This will be used first against those who lack the legal and financial resources to defend themselves. The average Canadian cannot afford to take a case to the Supreme Court so we will all have to live in fear. On top of this the new law would set up an open field for government agents and litigating predators to cause further damage to individuals and our legal system as a whole.

This law must be opposed and defeated before it can come into effect.

[Mark Fournier]

Clause 5 of the bill provides that the offences of public incitement of hatred and wilful promotion of hatred may be committed by any means of communication and include making hate material available, by creating a hyperlink that directs web surfers to a website where hate material is posted...

Mark

Is that "Hate" as determined by the HRC? Does that make organizations that promote Israel via hyperlinks, hate promoters in the eyes of people or other organizations that do not like Israel?

or does this provision give more work to the Human rights tribuanls?

Just asking!!!

This is enough material for another thread I will be starting. The thought crimes section of the Canadian Human Rights Act is likely to be struck down by the Supreme Court in the Lemire case. This bill does an end run around the eventual Supreme Court ruling and revives the same (or worse) laws by entering them into the criminal code.

There are bad things happening here.

[styky]

This is only part of the problem with this bill. There are so many that I'm going to be writing a series of articles to cover them.

Get someone like Brian Lilley with the Sun on it.

[Conservative_Toronto]

Sounds like something Ezra Levant would jump all over.

[Fairwarning]

So is this law saying I would not be able to provide a link to an islamic group like Hizb ut Tahrir who preaches the hate and destruction of my culture and way of life?

So I wouldn't be allowed to inform others that such a group hates us because I'm the one promoting the hate?

[Mark Fournier]

There isn't a jurisdiction in the world that holds people responsible for the content of the websites they post links to, yet the Canadian government plans on imposing that responsibility on all Canadian will this bill.

[snowstormcanuck]

Clause 5 of the bill provides that the offences of public incitement of hatred and wilful promotion of hatred may be committed by any means of communication and include making hate material available, by creating a hyperlink that directs web surfers to a website where hate material is posted...

Mark

Is that "Hate" as determined by the HRC? Does that make organizations that promote Israel via hyperlinks, hate promoters in the eyes of people or other organizations that do not like Israel?

or does this provision give more work to the Human rights tribuanls?

Just asking!!!

The wording in that clause seems to be referencing the Criminal Code provision of hate speech (s. 319), and not the civil right of action for discrimination created by s. 13.1 of the CHRA. The Criminal Code enactment is the higher threshold offence (must be tried in a court, you're innocent until proven guilty, Crown must prove intent, etc). That's the one silver lining perhaps.

[Mark Fournier]

So is this law saying I would not be able to provide a link to an islamic group like Hizb ut Tahrir who preaches the hate and destruction of my culture and way of life?

So I wouldn't be allowed to inform others that such a group hates us because I'm the one promoting the hate?

Nobody knows or can know which links the government would decide they wanted to charge us for posting. That's part of the insidiousness of this law. Our only defense would be to post no links.

This law doesn't baldly state, "It is illegal for a Canadian to post a hyperlink," but it may as well for the effect it will have.

[pirapoi]

Considering the hate speech - hyperlinking section was in C-46,
<a href="http://www.parl.gc.ca/About/Parliament/LegislativeSummaries/Bills_ls.asp?lang=E&ls=c46&Parl=40&Ses=2&source=library_prb"target="_blank"> C-46 / Sept 24, 2009</a> and has been around for over a year and half, I am suprised this has created so little attention.

About the only possible explantion I have seen so far is that the following case is before the Supreme Court now - which may ( ? ) make the hperlinking part moot.
/ Disclaimer: I'm not a lawyer, and I have no idea what I'm talking about.

On July 18, 2006, he authored an article, headed “Free Speech in Canada”, which hyperlinked one of the articles, as well as the website containing the other impugned articles. Those articles, in turn, were hyperlinked to one another. Mr. Crookes takes the position that, by creating these hyperlinks, or by refusing to remove the hyperlinks when advised of their defamatory character, Mr. Newton became a publisher of the impugned articles found at the hyperlinked websites. Mr. Crookes and his company, the Appellant West Coast Title Search Ltd., brought an action against Mr. Newton for damages for defamation.
<a href="http://www.scc-csc.gc.ca/case-dossier/cms-sgd/sum-som-eng.aspx?cas=33412"target="_blank"> SCC Wayne Crookes, et al. v. Jon Newton </a>