Canada's government seems determined to shed the country's reputation as a liberal democracy that values civil liberties. The Trudeau cabinet's move earlier in 2022 to financially isolate critics of its restrictive pandemic policies were more than a little chilling. Now several years of constant effort to tame the give-and-take of the internet culminate in legislation that seeks to bring much online speech under state control. At issue at the moment are actually two bills, C-11 and C-18. C-18 is similar to an earlier Australian law that requires digital platforms to pay for links to news articles. That law resulted in a negotiated compromise after Facebook and other outfits blocked links to Australian news sources. With the tech giants following a similar playbook up north, expect parallel results.
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