Toby Young Toby Young

Even Orwell’s Thought Police didn’t go as far as Trudeau

[Getty Images] 
issue 20 April 2024

You’d assume the reaction to the SNP’s new hate crime laws would make other authoritarian governments hesitate before introducing similar legislation. Humza Yousaf has become a laughing stock and his approval ratings have fallen by 15 points. But apparently not. The new Irish Taoiseach, Simon Harris, is determined to railroad through the Criminal Justice (Incitement to Violence or Hatred and Hate Offences) Bill, Donald Tusk’s government in Poland wants to introduce a new law that would make it a criminal offence to ‘defame’ a member of the LGBT community and Justin Trudeau is pressing ahead with an Online Harms Bill that makes our own Online Safety Act seem like the First Amendment. It’s as if all these ‘liberal’ leaders are saying: ‘You think Humza Yousaf is the West’s foremost opponent of free speech? Hold my beer.’

The Canadian proposal is, by some distance, the worst. It’s so dystopian, even George Orwell and Philip K.

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