Planned changes to Canada’s hate speech law would criminalise biblical passages, critics have claimed.
Under Canada’s criminal code, anyone found guilty of “wilful promotion of hatred” faces up to two years in jail.
But it also says that prosecution should not apply to a statement made in “good faith” and “based on belief in a religious text”.
This exemption would be scrapped under planned changes to the law agreed between the Bloc Québécois party and Sean Fraser, the justice minister in Mark Carney’s Liberal government.
It is contained in an amendment to the Combating Hate Act, currently working its way through the Canadian parliament.
However, the bill has faced opposition from religious and civil liberties groups due to a groundswell of opposition to plans to scrap the exemption.
The Bloc Québécois has been pushing for the change since 2023, when radical Montreal imam Adil Charkaoui called for all “Zionist aggressors” to be killed.
However, the imam said his remarks were a prayer and therefore could not, under the existing law, be classified as hate speech.
And in May last year, the Quebec prosecutor’s office concluded no criminal offence had been committed.
‘Right to press charges’
Critics argue that the attempt to plug what some see as a potential loophole has gone too far, especially after Marc Miller, minister of Canadian identity and culture, told a parliamentary committee that the bible contained “clear hatred towards, for example, homosexuals”.
He added: “Clearly, there are situations in these texts where these statements are hateful; they should not be used and prosecutors should have the right to press charges.”
Canada’s Conservative opposition party has opposed the amendment.
“Liberals spent the fall trying to censor religious texts and prosecute believers,” Pierre Poilievre, the party’s leader, wrote on X, adding the amendment would criminalise sections of the bible, Qur’an, Torah and other sacred texts.”
Andrew Lowton, another Conservative, added that the move was a “full-scale assault on religious freedom”.
The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops also objected in a letter to Mr Carney.
‘Significant concerns’
“The proposed elimination of the ‘good faith’ religious-text defence raises significant concerns,” they wrote.
“This narrowly framed exemption has served for many years as an essential safeguard to ensure that Canadians are not criminally prosecuted for their sincere, truth-seeking expression of beliefs made without animus and grounded in long-standing religious traditions,” they added.
Haseeb Hassaan, of the National Council of Canadian Muslims, added: “I think all Canadians can recognise that this is an issue that affects all of them, including religious and non-religious Canadians.”
Other provisions in the bill include banning hate symbols, such as the swastika and wilfully intimidating people outside places of worship.
Despite the Liberals being only one seat short of an overall majority and the bill being backed by other parties, the controversy over its provisions makes it unclear when it will become law.
[ARTICLE/ARCHIVE]
Under Canada’s criminal code, anyone found guilty of “wilful promotion of hatred” faces up to two years in jail.
But it also says that prosecution should not apply to a statement made in “good faith” and “based on belief in a religious text”.
This exemption would be scrapped under planned changes to the law agreed between the Bloc Québécois party and Sean Fraser, the justice minister in Mark Carney’s Liberal government.
It is contained in an amendment to the Combating Hate Act, currently working its way through the Canadian parliament.
However, the bill has faced opposition from religious and civil liberties groups due to a groundswell of opposition to plans to scrap the exemption.
The Bloc Québécois has been pushing for the change since 2023, when radical Montreal imam Adil Charkaoui called for all “Zionist aggressors” to be killed.
However, the imam said his remarks were a prayer and therefore could not, under the existing law, be classified as hate speech.
And in May last year, the Quebec prosecutor’s office concluded no criminal offence had been committed.
‘Right to press charges’
Critics argue that the attempt to plug what some see as a potential loophole has gone too far, especially after Marc Miller, minister of Canadian identity and culture, told a parliamentary committee that the bible contained “clear hatred towards, for example, homosexuals”.
He added: “Clearly, there are situations in these texts where these statements are hateful; they should not be used and prosecutors should have the right to press charges.”
Canada’s Conservative opposition party has opposed the amendment.
“Liberals spent the fall trying to censor religious texts and prosecute believers,” Pierre Poilievre, the party’s leader, wrote on X, adding the amendment would criminalise sections of the bible, Qur’an, Torah and other sacred texts.”
Andrew Lowton, another Conservative, added that the move was a “full-scale assault on religious freedom”.
The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops also objected in a letter to Mr Carney.
‘Significant concerns’
“The proposed elimination of the ‘good faith’ religious-text defence raises significant concerns,” they wrote.
“This narrowly framed exemption has served for many years as an essential safeguard to ensure that Canadians are not criminally prosecuted for their sincere, truth-seeking expression of beliefs made without animus and grounded in long-standing religious traditions,” they added.
Haseeb Hassaan, of the National Council of Canadian Muslims, added: “I think all Canadians can recognise that this is an issue that affects all of them, including religious and non-religious Canadians.”
Other provisions in the bill include banning hate symbols, such as the swastika and wilfully intimidating people outside places of worship.
Despite the Liberals being only one seat short of an overall majority and the bill being backed by other parties, the controversy over its provisions makes it unclear when it will become law.
[ARTICLE/ARCHIVE]
