Can you deny the holocaust in canada

The first half of s. No one can be prosecuted under s. If someone publicly accuses the Jewish people of having hoodwinked the world about the existence or extent of the Holocaust, that could be interpreted under Canadian law as hate speech. This agenda is often explicit.

Doug Beazley is a regular contributor based in Ottawa. Photo: Some rights reserved by Luke McKernan. How the dissent in the Ward ruling could influence the debate around legislation on harmful content online.

While the systematic, state-sponsored murder of six million Jews by the Nazis is the most documented genocide in history, far too often, its factual basis is denied, its scope mitigated, and the deliberate intentions of the Nazis and their collaborators are dismissed.

While Holocaust denial is not explicitly banned in the Canadian Criminal Code, these deniers seek to erase Jewish victimhood from the history books and to wilfully incite hatred. With anti-Semitism on the rise domestically and surging worldwide, fuelled by the proliferation of online hate, the concern is that digital bigotry may descend into real-world violence.

Nazi propaganda in newspapers and radio helped characterize the Jew as sub-human and paved the way for the slaughter of European Jewry. Once Jews are no longer seen as human, committing a massacre against them becomes significantly easier and, to its proponents, justified.

Zuckerberg claimed an increase in anti-Semitic activities around the world caused him to re-evaluate his stance. This statement was a tacit admission that Facebook thinks it played a pivotal role in fanning the flames of contemporary anti-Semitism. The problem of anti-Semitism online is acute. In , the U.

Critics may object that these social media giants ought to merely provide a platform and not interject in the actual content being posted and shared online, but we know this is just a straw man argument. People may disagree on the exact limits and role of free expression in society, but we know that just as child pornography is illegal and banned on Facebook, so too should content that denies the Holocaust and incites hatred and violent extremism.

While these announcements and new policies by Facebook and Twitter are welcome developments, they are just the tip of the iceberg for what must be done. State Department and over 40 other countries, including Canada, should be appropriated by all social media outlets. Facebook, Twitter, and other social media juggernauts must assume responsibility for protecting their vulnerable user base and work to combat hatred.

With IHRA incorporated into comprehensive hate speech policies, social media platforms will have an effective and neutral tool that protects its Jewish users from hate speech. This bipartisan committee features parliamentarians from around the world seeking to put a spotlight on the issue of online anti-Semitism, while promoting policies that curb the proliferation of hatred on the internet. Anti-Semitism is, after all, a virus. Trudeau apologises for LGBT discrimination.

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