Canada Bill C-63 (Online Harms Act)
CanadaThe bill that would have created a Digital Safety Commission, life sentences for speech offenses, and pre-crime peace bonds for things not yet said. It died with Trudeau's prorogation, and its halves came back separately.
Latest update
Platform half returned as the Safe Social Media Act (C-34); speech half had returned as the Combatting Hate Act (C-9)
Current position
Died on the Order Paper at prorogation
What it does
C-63 combined platform regulation with some of the harshest speech provisions a democracy has drafted: a Digital Safety Commission over seven categories of harmful content, a new hate-crime offense carrying up to life imprisonment, peace bonds restraining people a court fears might commit a future hate offense, and a revived human-rights complaint regime for online speech. Introduced February 26, 2024, it stalled amid the backlash and died on the Order Paper when Parliament was prorogued on January 6, 2025. The government then split it: the criminal provisions returned as the Combatting Hate Act, now law, and the platform framework as the Safe Social Media Act.
Why it matters
A bill too toxic to pass whole became two bills that each look moderate beside their parent. The pre-crime peace bonds and the life-sentence maximums drew condemnation across the spectrum, and tracking where each severed piece landed is how you follow what actually survived.
Our take
Splitting a censorship bill is a marketing decision. The parts did not soften; they lost the company that made them alarming. This entry stays as the map of where the pieces went.
Timeline
Platform half returned as the Safe Social Media Act (C-34); speech half had returned as the Combatting Hate Act (C-9)
LatestDied on the Order Paper when Parliament was prorogued
First reading (Commons)
Sponsor
Arif Virani