Micheal Geist is a very well known figure in Canada, and has built a solid reputation raising awareness of important privacy issues. He's testified in parliamentary advisory committees and CRTC hearings. The way you keep referring to him as "this blogger", unfairly makes it sound like some rando on the web wrote it.

This is not about verifying ages. This is about the government tracking people so they can use information against them in the future. Any kid that wants to bypass this will use a vpn or submit false documents.

the "blogger" is a well-known professor of law specializing in telecommunications issues

Yes, because cross-party consensus from politicians is always an indicator of good change! /s

I think 'this blogger' (see other comments) is well-informed and up-to-date on their stuff, so they probably have a more well-informed opinion than who I'm replying to.

These kinds of solutions are so short-sighted because a) kids will get around it and b) in 5 years we'll have someone come along trying to ban another set of websites, and then another. This has and continues to happen all over the world and throughout history. When you give people or institutions the ability to censor information, given enough time, that authority will be wielded against you.