Calgary Shows Approval for a 'Ministry of Truth'

City Council

Holy Smokes!

Calgary City Councillors just showed their approval for a Ministry of Truth!

I didn’t talk about it, but had seen the drop of the document where Councillor Courtney Walcott was re-introducing a motion to censor dissenting voices in City Council under the guise of combatting misinformation, disinformation and Malinformation in Local Government:

But today, this motion carried:

While this still needs to go to debate, this motion already carried, is there anybody that believes that, like passing of the Blanket Rezoning bylaw, no matter how many would show up in opposition, that this too shall pass - wait, maybe that’s the wrong way to use that.

Moving Along…

While I’m not shocked to see Calgary’s Hateful 8+Gondek approve of this, I’m not terribly sure why Communities First incumbent and candidate for the 2025 Municipal Election is on this.

Was he paying attention to what this said or does he approve this, no matter how Orwellian this is?

But let’s be clear…this isn’t an isolated development. Calgary’s vote comes on the heels of the federal Liberal government introducing Bill C-63 - the Online Harms Act - a legislative sledgehammer aimed squarely at Canadians’ ability to speak freely on the internet. When taken together, these moves reveal a coordinated cultural shift: from policing actions to policing thoughts.

And what’s terrifying? Thought-crime is no longer fiction. It’s law in the making.

Under Bill C-63, Canadians can face massive fines, civil lawsuits, house arrest, or even be forced to wear ankle monitors, not for doing anything, but because someone believes you might post “harmful” content online in the future.

This law would allow people to preemptively apply to judges to restrict your internet use, based on perceived risk, not actual action. It's like the plot of Minority Report, except it's being sold as “public safety” and “inclusion.”

So what qualifies as “harmful content”? That’s the catch…it’s intentionally vague. It can include:

• Offending someone’s identity or beliefs

• Criticizing certain government policies

• Sharing “non-consensual” opinions as determined by the state

This is not about safety. It’s about control.

Pair this with Calgary’s “truthfulness” policy, where the city can effectively declare your speech unfit for public discourse and you begin to see the machinery of authoritarianism being built piece by piece.

If you think this is conspiracy theory, look across the pond.

In the UK, the test case for Western censorship, police are already arresting citizens for Facebook posts, misgendering, or sharing memes. People have been:

• Visited by police for criticizing government COVID policies

• Fined or charged for “malicious communications”, including sarcastic tweets

• Arrested for “non-crime hate incidents”, events that aren’t illegal, but still logged on permanent record

British police are openly using terms like "wrong think", and ordinary citizens are being surveilled for pre-criminal thought patterns.

Calgary’s policy, Bill C-63, and these foreign examples all share one terrifying principle - your speech belongs to the state. And if your thoughts are “dangerous,” even in theory, you are punishable, even if you’ve done nothing wrong.

When Calgary Council tells you it’s about “truthfulness,” ask yourself this, whose truth?

Because history tells us that when governments get to define truth, facts disappear, dissent becomes dangerous, and citizens self-censor out of fear.

• Will parents opposing school policies be silenced?

• Will journalists criticizing city budgets be deemed “misleading”?

• Will citizens posting frustrations online now be arrested or monitored?

And once this local framework of narrative control is in place, with federal legislation like C-63 locking it in, what’s left of democracy?

We are rapidly approaching a society where feeling offended trumps being free. Where compliance is mandatory, and questioning is criminal.

Orwell didn’t write 1984 as a guidebook. But it seems those in power are treating it as one. If we don’t resist now locally, nationally, digitally, the freedom to think, speak, and dissent could be gone before most even realize it’s under attack.

This isn’t alarmism. It’s the documented trajectory of Canadian law, Calgary policy, and global precedent.

They say it’s for our safety.
They say it’s to stop harm.
They say it’s to uphold truth.

But truth doesn’t need a ministry.
Freedom doesn’t need a muzzle.
And democracy doesn’t survive in silence.

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