Only in Canada can you actively promote a bill that restricts or tramples on a part of Canadian culture and then be promoted to Minister of Culture. The swift reward given to Marc Miller has been to appoint him as the new Minister of Canadian Identity and Culture as of December 1, 2025. Rewarded for his promotion of changes to section 319 of the Criminal Code which effectively criminalize anyone who would quote certain passages from sacred texts.
Some argue the move is needed or justified in order to quell what is referred to as hate speech. The concept of hatred within speech is highly subjective, however. Much of it revolves around feelings which is hardly the basis for any factual criminal foundation. It could easily be argued that someone’s speech promoted one idea or the other including what some would call hate but should that be the standard of criminalization? In many cases, it would be difficult to link an individual’s speech directly to resultant hateful actions on someone’s part although if a loose interpretation is used, even Shakespeare would be guilty. Going after the speech itself and not taking the acts of violence seriously instead, seems rather backwards. If real consequences existed for physical acts then speech would be of little consequence.
If we are to treat speech in this manor should not television and movies depicting violence also constitute a form of hate promotion? Could it not be said they promote acts of hatred or violence towards others as much as quoting passage a of book would? Determining what actually incites hateful acts and if, in fact, they did so is an arduous path ripe in arbitrary and inconsistent decisions. It seems it will only add to court time chasing matters which are not nearly as serious as the actual violent or hateful acts themselves.
The fact government has chosen to reward the promotion of laws which can be unequally and arbitrarily applied speaks volumes to intended goals and ideals. Hiding under the feel good propaganda is the real life issue of misuse of power. The final decision of whether to prosecute is left to a government appointed bureaucrat who will simply do the bidding of the leadership in charge which is in many ways worse than the things we see down south. In the end, it seems Canadians feel better pointing fingers elsewhere while their own country is destroyed from within.