Silence is broken over Hate Speech Bill fiasco
THE Hate Speech Bill was never the “progressive” move for Ireland it was brandished as.
It’s authoritarian – a means of control and censorship behind a cloak of concern that posed such a threat to democracy it attracted global attention.
So why are our leading politicians only speaking up about it now?
It was the nearest we’ve actually come to that overused phrase – “far-right” – in action in Irish politics and our leaders were pushing it.
Anyone with a passing knowledge of civil liberties knew it was illiberal and dangerous and must be scrapped, if we regard ourselves as members of the free world.
I’m talking about it in the past tense somewhat, because this Bill is “going, going, gone” as Fianna Fail TD Barry Cowen said this week.
He’s right – it’s been mothballed. Thank God for that. Because there was no sign of it vanishing prior to March 8.
It seems the rotten referendums revealed what Ireland really thinks were a galvanising wake-up call to both politicians in power and those with ambitions to be in office. Before the referendums, many TDS were terrified to raise a peep about the Hate Speech Bill, for fear of being called racist/sexist/ homophobic.
It was easier to shut their mouths and let legislation continue that would have everyday effects on basic freedoms.
If enacted, the Bill would make it a crime punishable by jail to have “hateful” – whatever that means – material on your phone or laptop, without ever sharing it with anyone or without consequence.
It would be up to you to prove your innocence, instead of the other way around.
Now, there’s been a political epiphany and it’s hard to find anyone, apart from a few radical Greens, who actively supports the Bill.
Now that it’s safe to do so, they’re all lining up to tell us about their opposition to it. It’s like in George Orwell’s 1984 when Oceania switches from being at war with Eastasia and allied with Eurasia, to being at war with Eurasia and allied with Eastasia – and everyone acts as though it was ever thus.
Sinn Fein’s collective amnesia on it is amusing to witness.
All its TDS voted in favour of Justice Minister Helen Mcentee’s legislation last April but now they were suddenly always against it.
The party was notably silent for far too long on this issue, in the grip of the dogma that plagues them.
Lots of commentators – including myself – asked why they weren’t robustly campaigning against a Bill that pushed censorship, police over-reach and removed the rights of the accused, while stifling protest.
It’s everything Sinn Fein should stand against.
Then overnight, Donnchadh O’laoghaire was on
RTE with a straight face talking about the lessons of Section 31 and how the Bill is a “Trojan horse for silencing dissent”.
His colleague Pa Daly said: “It must be scrapped.”
They’re only now catching up with the likes of Aontu leader Peadar Toibin, former Justice Ministers Michael Mcdowell and Charlie Flanagan and Fianna Fail Senator Lisa Chambers, who all vocally opposed it.
People Before Profit’s Paul Murphy said from the start it would create “thought crime” and reverse the presumption of innocence. The Irish Council for Civil Liberties and lawyers groups opposed it in its current form.
Now even its greatest proponents – Ms Mcentee and soon-to-be Taoiseach Simon Harris - are shifting position and talking about “amendments”.
Any such amendments means the Bill will be returned to the
Dail. This time, it won’t be voted through by 110 votes to
14, as it was last year.
It’s dead in the water, no thanks to our supposed opposition.