Canada took a giant leap forward last night in its quest to persecute and criminalize Christianity after its House of Commons voted 186-137 to adopt Bill C-9, otherwise known as the Combatting Hate Act, advancing it to the Senate.
While religious freedom has long been considered a protected value in Canada, at least in theory, the government’s new hate speech legislation, which was supported by the Liberal and Bloc Québécois MPs, seeks to drastically curb that back.
Presently, the law exempts “hateful or antisemitic speech” if it is based in good faith on the interpretation of a religious text due to a sincerely held religious belief.
Bill C-9 strips that protection away. The National Post explains:
(If) Bill C-9 is passed, people of faith could be imprisoned for up to two years for expressing deeply held religious convictions that the government finds offensive.”
MP Scott Anderson, a fierce critic of the bill, called it a “travesty” and noted:
“For decades, Canadian law has had a religious exemption, which ensures Canadians can preach, teach, and discuss matters of faith, even when they can be controversial. … But Bill C-9 removes that protection.”
The removal of the religious exception clause is being driven by the Bloc Québécois, who have long sought to entrench cultural secularization, with the province of Quebec presently working on legislation to ban prayer in public.
Bloc Québécois leader Yves-François Blanchet, one of the main driving forces behind the bill, previously said:
“Speech that incites hatred is a criminal act, regardless of whether it is uttered under the guise of religion or not.”
Justice Critic Rhéal Éloi Fortin added:
“If we are serious about fighting hate, I think that… removing the religious exemption in the Criminal Code is important. We really need to clean up the Criminal Code and remove these kinds of exceptional defences, which are unacceptable.”
