NEW POLL: 73% of Canadians stand up for free speech, reject Bill C-10

A majority of the Canadian general public want to maintain the right to say what they’d like without excessive government oversight.

As highlighted by True North, 73% of Canadians prefer to maintain their freedom of speech over Bill C-10, a government effort that would attempt to enforce Canada’s Broadcasting Act onto social media platforms and the internet.

The poll was conducted by Public Square Research and Maru/Blue. In somewhat alarming detail, however, 72% of 1508 Canadians polled had never even heard of C-10. When it came down to the remaining 28% who were aware of the bill, it was: 31% supportive vs 53% unsupportive, either strongly or “somewhat.”

The controversial proposal was put on hold earlier this week as a committee of MPs are reviewing it to see if it violates Canadian free speech rights.

In a significant step today, Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole publicly called on Justin Trudeau to withdraw C-10 altogether. He went on to make it an election promise to repeal the bill himself, if Trudeau wouldn’t.

On Wednesday, Former vice-chair of the CRTC Peter Menzies joined the pushback. He criticized the wide ranging scope of the bill and how it's vague enough to be manipulated by the Canadian government on a whim. He said it had created a new societal divide between the government approved and non-approved.

The polarizing nature of the bill is forcing a clash of realities. Recently Dr. Jordan Peterson publicly challenged Trudeau over Bill C-10. On Twitter, Peterson pointed out that he has a million more YouTuber subscribers over the Canadian Broadcast Corporation. He questioned what that meant: does it mean Peterson is more of a success, or is the Canadian establishment more of a failure? In terms of adapting to the digital age.