Justin Trudeau
Profile
Prime Minister of Canada from 2015 until his resignation in January 2025, and the political architect of one of the most aggressive government expansions of speech and assembly controls in Canadian history. Trudeau invoked the Emergencies Act in February 2022 against the Freedom Convoy protests — freezing the bank accounts of donors and protesters without court order, the first use of the Act since its passage in 1988. His government introduced Bill C-63 (Online Harms Act) with retroactive hate speech liability, Bill C-18 (Online News Act) compelling platforms to pay publishers — which caused Meta to block all Canadian news — and Bill C-10 extending broadcast regulation to user-generated content. Trudeau personally described people who held views he disagreed with as holding "unacceptable views" — a formulation critics said revealed his government's disposition toward political speech it disliked. He also significantly increased CBC funding, creating documented alignment between the state broadcaster and government editorial positions.