A Canadian bill aimed at expanding the country’s hate speech laws could criminalize religious speech, including quoting the Holy Bible, conservatives and critics warn. The House of Commons passed the measure, known as Bill C-9, on March 25. Now, it’s on its way to the Senate.
The Canadian Department of Justice laid out the reasoning for introducing the new legislation in a press release last year, claiming "a horrifying rise in hate crimes in our communities." The agency said that "Canada will not tolerate anyone being made to feel afraid because of who they are, how they worship, or where they gather."
The provisions in the new bill include: creating an offense of “wilfully promoting hatred against any identifiable group by displaying certain symbols in a public place”; committing an offense motivated by hatred; “intimidating a person in order to impede them from accessing certain places that are primarily used for religious worship”; or “obstructing or interfering with a person’s lawful access to such places.”
Most concerning for conservatives is the repeal of a long-standing defense based on good-faith religious expression “in relation to the offences of wilful promotion of hatred or antisemitism.”
Quoting Scripture, religious sermons, and other faith-based expressions could trigger prosecutions of Christians, according to Andrew Lawton, a Canadian Conservative Member of Parliament. He spoke to Fox News Digital about his opposition to the bill:
"Bill C-9 makes it easier for people of faith and others to be criminally charged because of views that other people take offense to. The bill weakens protections for freedom of expression and freedom of religion, especially with the removal of the longstanding religious defense, which has stipulated that religious beliefs and religious texts expressed in good faith cannot be seen as ‘hateful.’”
Lawton also told Fox that liberal officials have already indicated that people could be prosecuted for quoting certain Scriptures. His concern has merit. In a Justice and Human Rights Committee meeting in October, Liberal Party MP Marc Miller, Minister of Canadian Identity and Culture, misinterpreted certain biblical passages:
“In Leviticus, Deuteronomy and Romans, there are passages with clear hatred towards, for examples, homosexuals. I don't understand how the concept of good faith could be invoked if someone were literally invoking a passage from, in this case, the Bible, though there are other religious texts that say the same thing. How do we somehow constitute this as being said in good faith? Clearly, there are situations in these texts where statements are hateful. They should not be used to invoke ... or be a defence. There should perhaps be discretion for prosecutors to press charges.”
Discretion for prosecutors swings the door wide open. Two months later, Liberal MPs on that committee backed a Bloc Québécois proposal to remove a religious exemption from Canada’s hate speech laws in exchange for their support of Bill C-9, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) reported.
But not all faith groups oppose the bill. In December, five Jewish advocacy groups issued a joint statement in response to Bill C-9, saying that Jewish Canadians have encountered "a level of hate and intimidation unlike anything in recent memory." The groups hope the bill will "contribute to a safer Canada." Referring to the removal of the religious exemption defence for “wilful promotion of hatred,” the groups said the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the courts would continue to protect religious freedom.
Secularization’s Slow Creep
The federal bill comes to the Senate on the heels of the Quebec provincial government passing legislation banning public prayer. While different in scope, it represents a slow creep enclosing all sides of religious liberty by a Western nation built by Christian European explorers. In 1497, Italian explorer John Cabot, commissioned by England’s monarch, landed in Newfoundland and planted a cross with the English and Venetian flags. Québec was heavily influenced by Catholicism by the mid-19th century, but quickly fell to secularism with the Quiet Revolution in 1960.
Quebec’s Bill 9 was introduced by Coalition Avenir Québec, which has made secularism a key legislative priority, The Guardian reports. It builds upon the 2019 Bill 21, now before the Supreme Court, which prohibits many public-sector workers in positions of authority from wearing visible religious symbols. Jean-François Roberge, the minister in charge of secularism in Quebec, said Bill 9’s controversial new provisions were the latest steps in a province working toward full secularization.
The Pew Research Center tracks patterns of religious restrictions around the world imposed by governments (Government Restrictions Index), individuals, or social groups (Social Hostilities Index). Pew showed that Canada had a moderate GRI score and a moderate SHI score in 2022, while the United States had a moderate GRI score and a low SHI score in the same year.
The International Institute for Religious Freedom (IIRF) published the "Global Religious Freedom Index 2024–2026: Western Democracies." Neither the US nor Canada ranked among the top 5 in the report's 2023 ranking of government support for religion. Denmark, Iceland, and Sweden top that list. But the US did have the dubious distinction of ranking first in anti-Semitic hate crimes in 2023 and fifth in anti-Christian hate crimes.
US Importing Bad Ideas
Lawton told Fox News Digital he was concerned that "bad actors" could "weaponize" the new hate crime measure to try to "silence opposing voices." Regulating religion is nothing new for Western nations. France leads the IIRF rankings for government regulation of the majority religion and societal discrimination against minority religions. The United Kingdom, Germany, Austria, Belgium, and the Netherlands have all passed laws restricting religious expression. Many European countries have reportedly adopted France-style lists or surveillance of “cults.”
The United States is not immune to importing bad ideas. Socialist and Marxist ideals have crept into the US with alarming acceptance, just a few generations after both Republicans and Democrats were united in their condemnation of communism. Generations of Americans have been pushing the boundaries of the US Constitution, often before a politically charged Supreme Court. This, while scrubbing God from schools and society, has left the country – founded by God-fearing men – fatherless and without any religious rudder or moral boundaries.
