In April, Canada’s federal government announced plans to criminalize speech that denies the Nazi genocide of six million Jews during World War II. At the time, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau presumably saw this as a popular, low-risk initiative. All reasonable people find Holocaust denial to be repugnant. A similar law already exists in Germany, and the Canadian version has multi-party support. (In fact, one Conservative MP is accusing the PM of stealing his idea.) During the Trudeau era, moreover, Canada’s progressive politicians and media have tirelessly promoted the claim that we are in the midst of a dangerous surge in right-wing extremism, with the proposed hate-speech provisions being marketed as part of a $5.6 million plan to combat antisemitism more broadly.

As a Jew, I have seen little evidence of any antisemitic surge in Canada—even if social media makes it easier to identify and call out the scattered cranks who do still peddle Jew hatred on their obscure websites and social-media accounts. Which is why I believe the government’s plan to criminalize Holocaust denial is more about attracting Jewish votes than protecting the Jews who cast them. But that’s not something you’re supposed to say out loud in polite company.

Some journalists have criticized the proposal on the basis that it might be unconstitutional. But one doesn’t have to invoke the Charter of Rights and Freedoms to explain why banning Holocaust denial is a bad idea. One need only hearken back to the controversy that erupted in the early 2010s over plans to build a Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg.