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The Liberal government’s politically contentious new anti-hate bill has passed its final hurdle in the House of Commons and will now go to the Senate.
Bill C-9 — dubbed the Combatting Hate Act — proposes new Criminal Code offences, including one that would make it a crime to intentionally promote hatred against identifiable groups in public using certain hate- or terrorism-related symbols.
The bill passed third reading with support of the Bloc Québécois on Wednesday night. Conservatives and the NDP voted against the legislation.
The Liberals got Bloc support by including a clause that would remove the religious exemption from Canada’s hate speech law.
The Criminal Code currently includes an exemption for hate speech, “if, in good faith, the person expressed or attempted to establish by an argument an opinion on a religious subject or an opinion based on a belief in a religious text.”
The Conservatives aggressively pushed back against the inclusion of the clause that would remove that exemption, arguing it amounted to an “assault” on religious freedoms.
Justice Minister Sean Fraser said Tuesday that the Bloc Québécois’s proposed amendment to Bill C-9 would not ‘prevent a religious leader from reading their religious texts.’ Fraser said he is in ‘lockstep’ with the Prime Minister’s Office on the bill and a ‘range of other items.’
A number of religious groups also raised concerns about the removal of the religious exemption.
Civil liberties groups including the Canadian Civil Liberties Association have also raised concerns about the bill, arguing it could criminalize peaceful protest and silence unpopular expression.
Justice Minister Sean Fraser, who sponsored the bill and brokered the deal with the Bloc, has pushed back saying the new legislation won’t “criminalize faith.”
The Senate must study the bill before it officially becomes law — and the upper chamber may still make suggestions to change the legislation.
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