By Jonathan Harvey | BlendrNews.com

Canada is not losing its freedom through dramatic overnight enforcement. It’s losing it quietly, inch by inch through six laws that on their own sound “reasonable,” but together fundamentally transform the relationship between citizens, the state, and free speech.

It began with the Online Streaming Act, which pulled streaming platforms and user-generated content under the authority of the CRTC. For the first time, individual Canadians like creators, small businesses, and advocacy groups were effectively treated as broadcasters subject to government rules about what qualifies as “Canadian content” in what gets promoted or effectively buried online. Through mandated “discoverability” and forced funding of state-approved content, the government handed regulators influence over what Canadians see here and share.

Then came the Online News Act, sold as a way to support journalism. But in reality, it broke the digital news ecosystem. Meta blocked Canadian news entirely, slashing traffic to independent outlets, while Google negotiated a $100 million annual payment plan that funnels money into legacy media and government-approved independence. The result is fewer opposing views, more centralized media, and a press corps increasingly reliant on state-sanctioned funding rather than public trust.

Next in the pipeline is the Online Harms Act. Under the emotionally unassailable banner of “protecting children,” the bill proposes a powerful digital safety commission with authority to force platforms to remove lawful speech, demand user data, conduct warrantless searches, and levy massive fines, all with minimal parliamentary oversight. Even more alarming, it empowers human rights tribunals and judges to punish Canadians for non-criminal speech, including preemptive restrictions based on what someone might say in the future.

Now, before Parliament, is the Strong Borders Act, or Bill C-2, a dramatically misnamed piece of legislation that expands warrantless access to subscriber data and metadata, and not just for police, but for a wide range of government officials. It compels service providers to hand over private information without judicial approval, allows Canada Post to open mail without a warrant, and even criminalizes large cash transactions. This, of course, is surveillance infrastructure, not border control.

Alongside it sits the Critical Cyber Systems Protection Act, or Bill C-8, which gives government the power to force telecom providers to cut people off from the internet entirely. Under vague language about “interference” or “manipulation,” the government will exert control over vast swaths of digital infrastructure, with enforcement triggered by dissent, mislabeled “disinformation,” or virtually anything, because there’s no meaningful oversight until after the fact.

And finally, the Combating Hate Act, or Bill C-9. This bill lowers the bar for hate speech prosecutions by removing the requirement for Attorney General approval and dramatically increasing penalties. It opens the door to more Canadians being investigated, charged, and silenced over speech, especially online speech, which is easily misinterpreted. Religious expression, political activism, and protests are also on the chopping block here, mirroring the UK’s aggressive policing of online speech.

This is the boiling frog model of governance, a slow procedural and bureaucratic death. People will simply adapt until one day they’re cooked.

So, Canada, this is your warning. The window is closing, and once it does, I’m not sure we get a chance to reopen it.

Originally published on Instagram @itsjonathanharvey