A new hate speech bill has critics concerned that it could chill religious speech in Canada.
Canadian Liberal Justice Minister Sean Fraser introduced the Combatting Hate Act, which passed through the House of Commons on March 25 and is awaiting a vote in the Senate. It would bolster the country’s hate speech laws and “create a new hate-crime offense and add penalties for intimidating or blocking people from accessing houses of worship, cultural spaces, schools, senior residences and cemeteries,” according to Fox News.
Critics noted that the bill also repeals a religious speech defense that could be used in some hate speech cases, and they worry about the effect it could have on institutions of faith in the country. Canadian Conservative Parliament member Andrew Lawton is among those calling out the legislation for opening up the door to the potential prosecution of religious communities.
“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,'” he said in a statement to Fox News Digital.
But while Christian and Muslim groups agree that the bill could very well infringe on religious speech, members of the Liberal government and some Jewish advocacy groups argue that it is designed to fight antisemitism, not criminalizing religion,” Fox reported.
Lawton argues that there needs to be more safeguards in place to protect religious speech.
“It’s not for government to decide which religious beliefs are legitimate or not. People of faith can and should debate this. But it’s incredibly concerning when a Liberal cabinet minister says that certain verses of Scripture are so inherently hateful that prosecutors should be able to press charges against those who quote them,” the lawmaker said.
Liberal Party MP Marc Miller, Minister of Canadian Identity and Culture, has previously suggested that some sections of the Bible are hateful and condemned religious speech protections.
“In Leviticus, Deuteronomy and Romans, there are passages with clear hatred towards, for example, homosexuals,” he said, per a transcript of the hearing. “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 defense.”
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Sierra Marlee is a millennial whose hunger for the truth in a world of fake news has led her to write. Marlee also contributes to BizPac Review.
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