Ottawa

SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk slammed Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for “crushing free speech” in his country, terming the act as 'shameful'.

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Musk's comments came after the Trudeau government made it mandatory for all the online streaming services that offer podcasts to formally register with the government to permit regulatory controls.

The SpaceX founder responded to a post by journalist and author Glenn Greenwald who was making a remark on the ruling.

Greenwald took to social media platform X and wrote, “The Canadian government, armed with one of the world's most repressive online censorship schemes, announces that all 'online streaming services that offer podcasts' must formally register with the government to permit regulatory controls.”

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To which Musk replied, “Trudeau is trying to crush free speech in Canada. Shameful”.

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It is pertinent to note that this is not the first time that Trudeau's government has been condemned for acting against free speech.

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Also read: 'We will not walk away': Biden pledges support to Ukraine after Congress pauses war-time aid

Trudeau in February 2022, for the very first time in the country's history, invoked the Emergencies Act that gave police additional power to deal with the trucker protests, who at that time were opposing the vaccine mandates.

Canada's attitude towards terrorists 'very permissive': Jaishankar

Meanwhile, India's Foreign Minister S Jaishankar on Friday (Sep 29) stated that Ottawa's attitude towards terrorists, extremist people, who openly advocate violence, was 'very permissive' after Trudeau sparked a row accusing India of its involvement in the killing of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.

"This has been an issue of great friction for many years with Canada. But in the last few years, it has come back very much into play because of what we consider to be a very permissive Canadian attitude towards terrorists, and extremist people who openly advocate violence. And they have been given operating space in Canada because of the compulsions of Canadian politics," he said.

Jaishankar stated that the Indian diplomats do not feel safe going to the embassy because of the current situation prevailing in the country.

He said, "...For us, it has certainly been a country where, organized crime from India, mixed with trafficking in people, mixed with secessionism, violence, terrorism-- it's a very toxic combination of issues and people, who have found operating space there."

"Today, I'm actually in a situation where my diplomats are unsafe going to the embassy, or to the consulate in Canada. They are publicly intimidated. And that has actually compelled me to temporarily suspend even visa operations in Canada," he added.

India has outrightly rejected the claims of involvement in Nijjar's murder, calling them ‘absurd’ and ‘motivated’.

(With inputs from agencies)

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