Pre-crime: Proposed ‘hate crime’ bill threatens to convict Canadians before they even break the law

Life Site News: 'Leave it to the Canadian prime minister, as many have noted, to translate the central premise of the movie into the realm of public policy. Bill C-261, currently pending before Parliament, proposes to deal with the newly formulated crime of online “hate propaganda” and “hate speech” before said crime has actually been contemplated, let alone occurred, assuming the plaintiff believes that he or she is the intended target of hate. An individual can thus be accused of a crime and made to pay the price — censure, compensatory damages, or even imprisonment — before the event has taken place.

'The Bill reads in part:

A person may, with the Attorney General’s consent, lay an information before a provincial court judge if the person fears on reasonable grounds that another person will commit (a) an offence under section 318 or subsection 319(1) or (2); (b) an offence under subsection 430(4.‍1); or (c) an offence motivated by bias, prejudice or hate based on race, national or ethnic origin, language, colour, religion, sex, age, mental or physical disability, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other similar factor.

'The net is so broad and finely meshed that scarcely anyone, once accused, can expect to escape prosecution.

'“Hate” is defined unhelpfully and imprecisely in the bill as “the emotion that involves detestation or vilification and that is stronger than dislike or disdain.” Who is to draw the line between these vague emotions? And what exactly comprises “reasonable grounds” in the bill’s formulation?

'“Hate speech” is defined as speech that is “likely to foment detestation or vilification of an individual or group,” always a highly subjective and arbitrary taxonomy for what constitutes “crime.” “Hate” is to be stamped out and punished before so elusive an attitude and debatable a construct can be clearly understood, fully determined, reliably detected, or merely conjectured.

'Indeed, the category of “hate crime” has always been an artificial and nebulous one, all too liable to manipulation and political bias, the very epitome of regulative absurdity. But now things are even worse; it can be summoned out of thin air. The concept is nothing less than a legal figment culminating in the practice of voodoo justice.'