Using the murder of reactionary ideologue Charlie Kirk as a pretext, the Trump administration is attacking freedom of speech in the United States. People have lost their jobs for criticizing Kirk, all to the applause of the president. The administration also pushed to suspend Jimmy Kimmel’s popular talk show after he suggested that Kirk’s killer may have been a MAGA supporter. On September 22, Trump officially declared the so-called “organization” Antifa a terrorist entity.
These blatant examples of censorship have caused a wave of panic in Canada. Columnist Yves Boisvert wrote in an article entitled “The Agony of American Democracy”: “When all power is in the hands of one man, it is no longer a democracy.”
Professor Jason Stanley of the University of Toronto said in an interview:
“The United States government is on the midway point, or early midway point, towards a one-party state, a dictatorship … And we in Canada have to not neutralize this. We have to not paper this over. We have to not normalize it.”
However, it must be noted that these attacks are not unique to the United States. Throughout the so-called Western democracies, we are seeing more and more restrictions on freedom of expression, including here in Canada.
Censoring like a “centrist”
Let’s take a Western country that all conventional journalists, columnists, and political scientists recognize as “democratic”: Germany. In the past year, its government has officially designated any criticism of Israel as anti-Semitic. It has even banned the use of Arabic at pro-Palestinian demonstrations. Furthermore, in a move strongly reminiscent of Mahmoud Khalil’s story in the United States, Germany is attempting to deport at least four foreign nationals for participating in demonstrations in support of Palestine. Recently, Charlotte Kates, a pro-Palestinian Canadian lawyer, was detained in Athens and deported after Germany banned her from the Schengen area in August.
Who is this enemy of free speech at the helm of Germany? Is it the MAGA movement, or its German counterpart, the AfD? No, it is Friedrich Merz, leader of the German conservatives, in coalition with the SPD, Germany’s traditional “left-wing” party.
It is not only in German “democracy” that we see attacks on freedom of expression. In England, where the Labour Party is in power, the group Palestine Action has been declared a terrorist organization, even though its crimes amount to nothing more than throwing paint on fighter jets and disrupting arms factories in order to combat the genocide. Since then, hundreds of ordinary people have been arrested for the crime of holding up a sign that read “I support Palestine Action.”
In Canada too
While Canadian columnists cry foul against the dictatorship in our southern neighbor, censorship is also on the rise in Canada.
It was recently announced that the Irish rap group Kneecap, known for its stance in support of oppressed peoples, particularly Palestinians, has been banned from entering Canada, where they were scheduled to perform concerts in October. They are accused of anti-Semitism for criticizing Israel and its genocidal policies.
Furthermore, on September 11, Minister Mélanie Joly stated that she was working urgently to dissolve Samidoun, a prominent pro-Palestinian group in British Columbia that Canada has designated as a terrorist entity. Their only “crime” is to have burned Canadian flags and defended the Palestinian people’s right to resist—a right recognized by the UN.
These are not isolated incidents. In fact, the Carney government is currently waging a coordinated offensive against freedom of speech. Its Bill C-9 would significantly broaden the definition of “hate speech.” For example, under this law, any demonstration in front of a school, cultural center, or place of worship would automatically be considered a “hate crime.” It is easy to see the problem with such a law when we remember that Israeli real estate developers frequently organize events in synagogues to sell land stolen from the West Bank. Counter-demonstrations against this scandalous colonial practice would likely be considered “hateful” under Bill C-9.
Municipal and provincial governments are also getting involved. Last May, the city of Toronto introduced a bylaw similar to C-9. The result is that almost any demonstration in the city center has the potential to be declared illegal if a nearby “community institution” requests it. Recently, Quebec Premier François Legault indicated that he was considering proposing a similar measure, even considering a constituency office as a “sensitive location”!! It would be difficult to find a practice more contrary to freedom of expression than prohibiting demonstrations in front of the offices of the people who are supposed to represent us!
All guilty
We are not witnessing the sudden emergence of a dictatorship in the United States, under the influence of one man, but a widespread decline in democratic rights in the West. Trump brings a particular flavor to this: with his megalomaniacal tendencies, he censors anyone who directly criticizes him and his movement, including the most moderate Democrats. But Carney, Starmer, Merz, and other “respectable” politicians do not place much more importance on freedom of expression.
This wave of repression is in fact an expression of the profound crisis of legitimacy facing the institutions of the ruling class. For a whole historical period, the capitalist class was able to buy social peace with minor reforms and symbolic measures. But this is no longer possible. The crisis of global capitalism means that capitalist governments must come to the aid of the rich and secure their profits, while allowing the conditions of the masses to deteriorate. They are therefore less and less able to buy the consent of the masses and have to resort to coercion.
This is what is happening with Palestine. Supporting Israel is a vital issue for Western imperialism, but the capitalists and their lackeys in power have clearly lost the debate on this issue. So they are trying to silence people.
It will be the same with any other issue that is key to the interests of the bosses. We will see more and more censorship in our “democracies” as the crisis of the system deepens, exploitation intensifies, and popular discontent increases.
However, this repression is not a show of strength, but of weakness. Our masters are afraid of the rise of class struggle and what it portends for the future.
The labour movement must defend our democratic rights tooth and nail, since they enable us to organize against our exploitation. This struggle will continue as long as we threaten those who govern us. It will only end for good when we overthrow them.
