It is often said that it is never too late to do the right thing, but after months of doing nothing, that may not be the case for privacy and online harms reforms in Canada.
Michael is right that the government should move ahead with the Online Harms Act shorn of the Criminal Code provisions and the human rights elements. He is also correct that at this point in time, the data privacy component of Bill C-27 should be separated from AIDA so that it too may be able to pass in this Parliament.
That said, an argument could be made that had Parliament not ground to a halt two months ago, the problematic elements of Bill 63 could have been fixed up in Committee and even AIDA might have been made fit for purpose with enough Committee work.
Now there is simply no time for the more ambitious agenda and the government should push the less controversial elements through as quickly as possible.
> the government should push the less controversial elements through as quickly as possible.
Why?
So that we can do it all over again when a majority Poilievre government decides to repeal it and redo their own thing on the basis that Mr. Trudeau & Mr. Singh didn't have any legitimacy? After all, pushing a bill through in the dying days of a government that is about as popular as a fart in an elevator just before you get replaced by people who hold you in contempt isn't exactly a recipe for enduring legislation.
I mean.. unless they pass something that Mr. Polievre and the Conservative caucus **want** to vote for (and therefore keep when they're in power), doesn't shoving something through just make for more chaos and uncertainty? And for what?
And even if Mr. Trudeau was willing to toss his party's priorities for the bill out the window and rewrite it to make it into a bill that Mr. Poilievre would vote for, do you think those men are capable of cooperating?
Michael is right that the government should move ahead with the Online Harms Act shorn of the Criminal Code provisions and the human rights elements. He is also correct that at this point in time, the data privacy component of Bill C-27 should be separated from AIDA so that it too may be able to pass in this Parliament.
That said, an argument could be made that had Parliament not ground to a halt two months ago, the problematic elements of Bill 63 could have been fixed up in Committee and even AIDA might have been made fit for purpose with enough Committee work.
Now there is simply no time for the more ambitious agenda and the government should push the less controversial elements through as quickly as possible.
> the government should push the less controversial elements through as quickly as possible.
Why?
So that we can do it all over again when a majority Poilievre government decides to repeal it and redo their own thing on the basis that Mr. Trudeau & Mr. Singh didn't have any legitimacy? After all, pushing a bill through in the dying days of a government that is about as popular as a fart in an elevator just before you get replaced by people who hold you in contempt isn't exactly a recipe for enduring legislation.
I mean.. unless they pass something that Mr. Polievre and the Conservative caucus **want** to vote for (and therefore keep when they're in power), doesn't shoving something through just make for more chaos and uncertainty? And for what?
And even if Mr. Trudeau was willing to toss his party's priorities for the bill out the window and rewrite it to make it into a bill that Mr. Poilievre would vote for, do you think those men are capable of cooperating?