Canada Goes Full On "Ministry of Truth" - Think it Can't Happen Here?

     It has been said by many different people. America’s First Amendment is first for a reason. It is that which all other rights enjoyed by Americans hinge upon. Generations of American soldiers have fought and died to protect that most important right of free speech. Most Americans will even tell you, that while they might not agree with something you have to say, they will defend to the death your right to say it. But imagine living in a place where that most precious of rights is not exactly a guarantee? In fact, what if you lived in a place, where the government gets to regulate what you say, and the content you put out to the public? You might think that kind of thing only happens in places like China, North Korea, or Iran. Well, it will be happening closer to home than you think, and who knows, it may give those in America who think the First Amendment in the United States needs some regulating, a few ideas.

     We all remember the Canadian truckers. They defied Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s draconian COVID-19 rules. In response, Trudeau sought to have the personal bank accounts of those truckers frozen. Well, the Trudeau government is back, this time with even more authoritarian mandates. This time, he has decided that all podcasting and online streaming services must register with the Canadian government’s broadcasting regulatory entity to make sure that they promote “meaningful contributions to Canadian and Indigenous content.” Last week, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), quietly decided that Canada’s speech laws needed what they called “a major overhaul,” and “a regulatory plan to modernize Canada’s broadcasting framework,” but what that really amounts to, is the regulation of speech. Note to the CRTC; determining what citizens can say and not say is hardly “modern.”

     The new regulations from the CRTC say that any podcasting or online streaming service that operates in Canada and generates at least $10 million or more in annual revenue will need to register with the CRTC by November 28. It could also mean that those services could face restrictions to traditional broadcasting sites like television and radio. The only exemptions from the new regulations are those online streaming services that only offer video games or audiobooks. The CRTC also stated that part of the new regulations would also be to “force” the online streaming services to “actively support Canadian and Indigenous content.” Hmmm…sounds a lot like quashing Canadians’ freedom of speech. “X” CEO Elon Musk called it exactly what it is saying, “Trudeau is trying to crush free speech in Canada. Shameful.” Unfortunately, it is becoming business as usual in Trudeau’s Canada. The criminalization of speech in Canada has become more brutal, with Canadians being arrested for things like “misgendering” transgender persons, or for saying out loud, that you think there are only two genders.

     To be sure, it is a move that no doubt has American leftists salivating. How to be able to somehow get around the First Amendment, long an obstacle for the left, and be able to regulate what people can say and not say. It is an American leftist’s utopian dream. If you think it can’t happen here, and that some form of it has not been being worked on for decades, and that if Democrats are able to drag Joe Biden across the finish line to a second term in the White House, they will most certainly attempt to implement some form of it, you would be right. It has already been tried in the past. Remember the “Fairness Doctrine?” Starting in the late 1940s to combat wartime radio restrictions, the Fairness Doctrine said that radio stations had to give equal time to both sides of an issue. Fast forward to the late 1980s and the advent of Rush Limbaugh and in the 1990s with Fox News. Suddenly, Democrats were all about fairness and thought Rush and Fox News should have to give equal time to opinions they disagreed with. Then along came “Net Neutrality.” A bit more complicated than the Fairness Doctrine, Net Neutrality says that all Internet Service Providers must treat all content the same, no slowing down or restricting access to certain websites or content. Because Democrats cannot get the Fairness Doctrine back, simply because there is far too much content to regulate, they will give Net Neutrality another try. All those things are nice, but what is really at the top of the Biden administration’s wish list is a return of the “Disinformation Governance Board.” You remember Nina Jankowicz, that creepy chick who made videos of herself singing about how great censorship was to the tune of innocuous Mary Poppins songs. She was to be the head Fraulein of the Disinformation Governance Board. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told us it was set up to prevent the spread of “misinformation” from agents of Russia, China, and Iran, but was really to prevent truthful information about COVID vaccines, elections, and other things that Americans really care about. The Disinformation Governance Board was so odious, that even liberals had a problem with it. But we all know that liberals would not be the target of such an entity, the target of monitoring, would of course be conservative speech. Because why be forced to listen to people you disagree with, when you can just ban them? 

     While we watch as our neighbors to the north grapple with a Prime Minister who acts more like a dictator with every new government mandate he declares, we can remind ourselves that they voted for this and not feel sorry for them, or we can see it as the warning that it is.