The War on Speech Continues

Governments continue efforts to censor speech under the guise of combatting antisemitism

By

Rozali

Recently I wrote about the slew of Western governments cracking down on pro-Palestinian protests, flags, and chants just days following Hamas’s October 7 attack.

Since then, the establishment has been feverishly looking at other ways to curb our civil liberties under the guise of combatting ‘antisemitism.’

Conveniently, the usual pro-free speech advocates have been quiet about these efforts while middle to upper class Zionists shriek about feeling unsafe in their comfortable suburban homes in the West, like this woman who once clearly expressed support for nuking Palestinians, then later indoctrinated her child to believe that only Jewish people get killed.

A Tale of Two Tweets

In this highly charged environment, I certainly don’t fault anyone for being extra cautious, but this is not that. This is a woman who actively wants genocide, but fails to see how she is complicit for creating the conditions for resentment and anger to fester.

Trudeau speaks at antisemitism conference

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau recently spoke at an antisemitism conference in Ottawa noting that there has been a “very scary rise of anti-Semitism here at home, on top of past years, when we saw already a steady rise in anti-Semitism.”

He added,

“There were reports of a possible hate crime at Tanenbaum CHAT, a Jewish High School in Toronto, last week. I’ve heard stories of people who are wondering if they shouldn’t wear their Star of David necklaces, if they should take their yarmulkes off in public. Families worry about what they face if they go to synagogue, and I know you’re all probably encountering hateful and troubling rhetoric online.”

The problem with this myopic view is that it assumes hate crimes are only being perpetrated against Jewish people. This angle not only downplays, but it completely ignores hate crimes committed against Palestinians.

Over a week ago, a 6-year-old Palestinian-American boy was stabbed 26 times in his Illinois home. His family’s landlord murdered him and attacked his mom because they were Muslim. The media and advocacy groups barely reported this story before quickly moving on to the next one.

The Canadian government already pours millions annually into combatting antisemitism, though there is no equivalent support for combatting Islamophobia. Even in the immediate post-9/11 world when Islamophobia was rampant and hate crimes against Muslims were regular occurrences, there was no concerted effort to implement programs to combat Islamophobia or educate the public.

My reason for bringing this up isn’t to engage in a petty victimhood competition, but rather to show how the establishment historically and disproportionately allies with Israel at the expense of Palestinians and their ongoing struggles living in the occupied Palestinian territories. For example, earlier this year Israeli forces killed more than 200 Palestinians—this was the highest recorded number of deaths in the conflict since 2005—but that hardly registered in the media. To the establishment it’s business as usual. Palestinians dying at the hands of Israel is simply part of the status quo and hardly worth mentioning. But Israelis dying at the hands of militant groups is deemed worthy of global condemnation and action.

Increased support announced for Jewish communities

In his speech, Trudeau also announced Jewish communities would be provided with extra protection.

“…[T]he leadership of the RCMP is aware of actions being taken to keep Jewish communities safe. We’ve continually improved and expanded the Security Infrastructure Program so that community institutions like synagogues and Jewish day schools can make needed investments.”

The Security Infrastructure Program was created specifically for communities at increased risk of hate-motivated crimes. This year the Canadian government invested $5 million into this program.

On top of expanding security programs, Trudeau boasted additional funding for efforts to combat antisemitism.

He said,

“In 2015, when our government took office, this program only had about $1 million worth of funding. Since then, it has grown to over $15 million. I wish it hadn’t existed at all, I wish we didn’t need it, but we do and we’re going to continue to be there listening to your concerns and keeping investing in ways to keep your community safe.”

It’s evident where the Canadian government’s priorities are. The most important goal is preserving its allyship with Israel, and ensuring Israel’s continued domination and oppression of Palestinians, no matter what the cost.

It should be noted that Canada has already dedicated $70 million “directed to projects in the Jewish community and combatting antisemitism” as outlined in the 2022 federal budget.

In his speech, Trudeau also announced the appointment of Deborah Lyons as Canada’s new Special Envoy on Preserving Holocaust Remembrance and Combating Anti-Semitism. Eager to please, Deborah Lyons is already looking into ways to curb free speech on university campuses under the guise of combating ‘hate speech’ and supporting ‘antisemitism education.’

On her recent appointment, Lyons tells the media about the “the malignancy growing here, that cancerous hate speech, that desire to polarize and divide and disrupt and destroy the spirit that is Canada.”

Trudeau and his goons have made it abundantly clear that they are committed to clamping down on speech whenever the opportunity strikes.

The bleak future of Canada’s information highway

At the antisemitic conference, Justice Minister Arif Virani also took the opportunity to try and sell the Liberal government’s online harms legislation.

The controversial online harms proposal was first introduced in 2021 under former Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez. It was met with widespread criticism and has since been reassessed, and is now being pushed once again with the Liberal government promising it will be making more moves on it this fall.

According to the Canadian government, the purpose of the online harms legislation is to create a “safe online space that protects all Canadians.” Based on the consultations and roundtables, we know that this legislation will be heavily informed by ideological parties who have a very obvious ‘woke’ bias. Consultation participants believe ‘slow violence’ must be regulated, that ‘systemic biases’ must be taken into account, and that ‘disinformation’ must be tackled. There were many additional recommendations made that, if implemented, will be the nail in the coffin in Canada’s Great Propaganda Firewall.

Additionally, the Zionist group Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) is pushing for legislation to combat ‘online hate’ as well as increased regulation and penalties for social media companies that fail to comply.

As Yves Engler notes, CIJA was created by a handful of wealthy individuals to “replace the nominally democratic Canadian Jewish Congress.” CIJA is the advocacy agent of Jewish Federations of Canada including the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver that notably once fired staff member Maytal Kowalski after she objected to its refusal to ask the Canadian government to oppose Israel’s occupation of the West Bank. Yves Engler also notes that Canada’s dominant Jewish organizations, including the B’nai B’rith and CIJA, have take an ‘Israel no matter what’ position, and that is made all the more evident in their attempts to remove any opinion that does not align with this position.

Years after introducing the online harms proposal, there has still not been an agreement on how to define ‘online hate’ or ‘harm’ or any of the other highly subjective, broad terms that can easily be manipulated and redefined depending on who is the target. Antisemitism, for example, is highly subjective and continues to be redefined. For Zionists, any critique of Israel is labeled ‘antisemitic.’ Even Trudeau’s personal definition differs from the government’s. In his speech, Trudeau defines modern anti-semitism as the three Ds: double standards, delegitimization, or demonization of Israel. And that’s a big problem when Zionist organizations push for legislation like the online harms bill. What will be the impact of this legislation for marginalized groups and dissident voices? What will this look like for a country that purports to still uphold democratic values?

The Canadian government has already passed a number of laws that curbs online speech and regulates the content Canadians see. With these rising tensions, it is taking advantage of this opportunity to push draconian bills under the guise of creating ‘a safe space’ and now ‘combating antisemitism.’ Only time will tell what else it will do under the purported goal to combat hate speech.

Governments, Big Tech push pro-Israel bias

Canada is not alone in its efforts to curb speech under the guise of combating antisemitism.

World leaders have been instructed to read from the same playbook and have adopted the goal of ‘combatting antisemitism’ at any cost.

U.S. Senator Michael Bennet wrote a letter to X, Meta, TikTok, and Alphabet requesting they “take immediate and concerted efforts to address the scale and speed at which disinformation is circulating.” His request aligns with the European Union’s position for Big Tech to remove ‘illegal content and disinformation.’ On paper, I wouldn’t disagree with this, but can we really trust what the government might define as ‘disinformation’? We already know governments around the world routinely join forces with Big Tech to remove ‘misinformation,’ i.e., information that might threaten the establishment agenda.

For example, last year The Intercept reported that Facebook and Instagram blocked Palestinians from documenting their abuses at the hands of Israeli police. In 2021, Israel launched airstrikes against Gaza, killing 256 Palestinians, after which Israeli police cracked down on dissidents in Israel and the West Bank.

Because legacy media is no longer the gatekeeper of information, it has less control over upholding a specific narrative, and there’s no coming back from this.

In the age of information, more people are waking up to the mainstream media’s deceptions and willingness to lie to push an agenda. While independent media and citizen journalists are not immune to this, news consumers have more options to corroborate news stories with alternative sources. In this case, Israel is losing the information war and it knows it. Even well-established right-wing Zionist shills like Ben Shapiro are losing mass supporters.

Certainly there is a mis/disinformation problem, but the solution is not to censor, but to educate netizens, increase media literacy, and allow information to flow freely.