The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) and Toronto's Cardinal Francis Leo are urging Prime Minister Mark Carney to retract the Liberal Party’s reported agreement with the Bloc Québécois to remove religious-belief exemptions from Canada’s hate speech laws.

In an open letter published Dec. 4, CCCB President Bishop Pierre Goudreault of Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pocatière warned that repealing Section 319(3)(b) of the Criminal Code — which protects good-faith expressions or opinions based on religious texts from hate speech prosecution — would have a “chilling effect on religious expression.”

“The removal of this provision risks creating uncertainty for faith communities, clergy, educators and others who may fear that the expression of traditional moral or doctrinal teachings could be misinterpreted as hate speech and could subject the speaker to proceedings that threaten imprisonment of up to two years,” wrote the CCCB president.

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The CCCB calls on the Liberals to keep the religious-text defence in Section 319(3)(b).

Alternatively, the Canadian bishops propose two options: a clear public assurance statement that “good-faith religious expression, teaching and preaching will not be subject to criminal prosecution under the hate-propaganda provisions”; and mandatory consultation with religious leaders, legal experts and civil-liberties' organizations before any Criminal Code changes affecting religious freedom.

Leo added his voice the following day in a letter to Toronto's faithful, which he also shared with all MPs in the archdiocese, saying "as Catholics, we must always firmly reject all forms of hatred and discrimination." But "the ability to express and teach our faith freely — without fear that sincere, good-faith proclamation of the Gospel might be misunderstood as unlawful — is a cornerstone of a healthy, democratic Canada. Removing this narrow but important safeguard risks creating uncertainty for clergy, educators and all people of faith who seek to pass on the teachings of the Church with charity and integrity."

Conservative MP Andrew Lawton was “very happy to see” the bishops' letter and the “denunciations from members of the Jewish community, Muslim community and Indian religious traditions such as Sikhs or Hindus. All people of faith need to understand that this will target everyone."

Lawton was supposed to attend a justice and human rights committee meeting on Dec. 4 to discuss the proposed amendment to the Liberals’ divisive Combatting Hate Act – Bill C-9. The main planks of this legislation are criminalizing intimidation and obstruction outside of establishments used by faith-based groups and making it a felony to purposefully brandish “certain terrorism or hate symbols in public.”

However, the session was cancelled by Liberal chairperson James Maloney, who told the media, “I decided to cancel the meeting so the members could regroup to find a path forward.” Maloney was just elevated to this position after former chair Marc Miller was named Minister of Canadian Identity and Culture on Dec. 1.

Hours after the cancelled meeting, Lawton told The Catholic Register the “Liberals are not only refusing to say on record where they stand on this amendment to strip away religious protection and freedom, they won’t even say if they will commit to meetings next week to study this bill. The Liberals are obstructing their own bill here and leaving tremendous uncertainty surrounding people of faith and what the future looks like.”

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Conversely, Liberal MP Leslie Church accused the Conservative Party of “bad faith sabotage and delay dressed up as consultation” on Dec. 4 in the House of Commons. In a post to her X account on Nov. 27, she specifically accused Lawton “of filibustering the Justice committee” with lengthy speeches and motions to delay.

“The Liberals are the ones controlling when the committee meets and for how long, so there is no argument that we are the ones obstructing here,” said Lawton. “We have grave concerns with this bill, but the only way to deal with those is on committee.”

Certain remarks made by Miller before his promotion to culture minister add to Lawton’s concerns.

“When he was chairing the committee, he said prosecutors should be able to, in his words, ‘press charges’ against those who quote Scripture that the government finds objectionable,” said Lawton. “He is now the minister responsible for Canadian identity. The signals the government has sent about this are very concerning.”

Miller said during an Oct. 30 committee meeting: “Clearly, there are situations in these texts where these statements are hateful. They should not be used to invoke, or be a defence, and there should perhaps be discretion for prosecutors to press charges.”

Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet weighed in on the committee meeting being cancelled. He suggested “the Liberals fear a backlash against them. And we fear that they might do the same next week."

Blanchet affirmed that his party’s support of Bill C-9 rests on the religious exemption being removed.

The Bloc’s position aligns with the move towards secularism gathering steam in Quebec. Bill 9, introduced by the provincial government on Nov. 27, includes measures to ban prayer in public institutions and communal prayer on public roads and in parks, restrict the offering of religion-based meals and forbid religious symbols in communications issued by public institutions.

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The House of Commons will rise for the Christmas recess on Dec. 12 and resume sitting on Jan. 26.

Visit cccb.ca to read Goudreault’s entire letter to Carney.