Canada’s Justice Minister recently announced that the government will split Bill C-63, the Online Harms Act, into two parts, separating regulations for social media companies from changes to hate speech and hate crime laws. 

ARPA Canada’s EasyMail and articles on the bill noted the need to address these issues separately. Many of you emailed your member of Parliament about your concerns with the Online Harms Act. So, we’re thankful that the government has decided to split the bill into these two parts! 

Bill C-63 

Bill C-63, also known as the Online Harms Act, was introduced in February 2024. One part of the bill contained some good content, including attempts to combat online pornography and child sexual exploitation. The bill would also hold social media companies accountable and require them to remove any child pornography or non-consensual pornography from their sites. However, this portion of the bill would also create a new oversight agency with potentially broad powers to suppress online content that it considers harmful. 

The other major portion of the bill would create harsher penalties for hate propaganda in the Criminal Code, and it would create a new criminal offence for ‘hate crime.’ What is troubling is that it would bring back section 13 of the Canada Human Rights Act so that hate speech could be punished under human rights law. Complaints of hate speech in human rights law are far easier to bring and to prosecute than criminal charges. Section 13 leaves too much room for subjective and ideologically motivated interpretations of what constitutes hate speech.   

Moving Forward 

Now that Bill C-63 is being split into two bills, the most problematic elements (the Criminal Code and Human Rights Act amendments) will be moved to a separate bill that can be fully opposed. The Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights began its study of the remainder of Bill C-63, focused on the proposed regulations for social media companies, on December 5. Since the bill has not yet passed 2^nd reading in the House of Commons, this study is technically a ‘pre-study’ to help speed up the bill’s progress.  

The benefit of splitting Bill C-63 into two parts is that ARPA and others can now unequivocally oppose the new bill while calling for further amendments to the original. We can point out remaining problems while also acknowledging the good. The hope is that, through careful study at Committee, the online harms part can be revised and improved. 

We’re thankful that the government heard from Canadians, including you, about the problems with trying to regulate hate speech, especially through the Canada Human Rights Act. At the same time, Canadians now have an opportunity to support good changes and encourage the government to improve the part of the bill that deals with pornography and holding social media companies accountable.  

The bill has not yet officially been split into two. However, the pre-study at Committee of parts of the bill indicates that has effectively happened already. Stay tuned for further updates as the bills are split and may move forward in the House of Commons.