Parliamentarians return to the House of Commons from their winter recess on Jan. 26, which will trigger renewed debate over Bill C-9, the Combatting Hate Act.

On Dec. 9, a controversial amendment introduced by the Bloc Québécois to remove the religious speech defence from Canada’s hate speech law was approved with Liberal Party support during a justice and human rights committee meeting. This action occurred despite a significant cross-section of faith bodies, civil liberty and rights organizations and labour groups denouncing the amendment.

Potentially, the clause-by-clause review of this legislation could be completed within the first week back, setting up a third reading vote and passage to the Senate.

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Bloc leader Yves-François Blanchet has pronounced that nullifying Section 319 (3)(b) of the Criminal Code is the price to ensure the minority federal government has voting support. This provision declares that no person should be charged with a hatred offence “If, in good faith, they expressed or attempted to establish by an argument an opinion on a religious subject or an opinion based on a belief in a religious text.”

The main tenets of this act, if it becomes law, are criminalizing intimidation and obstruction outside of establishments used by faith-based groups and banning the intentional flaunting of “certain terrorism or hate symbols in public.”

Uniformly, the entities criticizing the amendment do agree that hatred must be condemned in Canadian society.

Fr. Deacon Andrew Bennett, the director of faith community engagement for the Cardus think tank, is closely watching the developments. He explained to The Catholic Register why proposing to remove the sincere religious speech guardrail “was tremendously short-sighted.”

“I think it demonstrated a real lack of awareness about the importance that provision in law has as a marker. It reinforces what is written in the Charter about freedom of religion or conscience being a fundamental freedom,” said Bennett.

He added that the “million-dollar question” is whether the government under Prime Minister Mark Carney will follow the Bloc down this road to the end, or if the loud dissenting chorus, in the end, will successfully encourage the Liberals to abandon this amendment.

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“I think they were probably a bit surprised by the degree of the blowback,” said Bennett. “And so, it was good that so many religious communities, so many faith communities spoke out.”

The opposition against the bill gathered momentum during the recess. Alongside various Conservative MPs hosting town halls and awareness events across the country, groups, notably Campaign Life Coalition, launched petition campaigns centred on defending religious freedom.

“We just went over 10,000 signatures on our petition,” said David Cooke, campaigns manager for Campaign Life. “We're having very good engagement from the public. That's one of the top petitions we've ever launched at Campaign Life Coalition.

“People are very concerned (about Bill C-9). I'm getting a lot of personal emails and comments and questions about it from people who are worried about what it means for them and their ability to express their faith and their personal views on matters that might be considered hate speech depending on who interprets that.”

Bennett concurs that the central challenge to contend with is formulating a clear understanding of what constitutes hate. He said individuals should be empowered to hold a belief or opinion grounded in religious tradition. This could mean Biblical views about gender, human sexuality or the value of life, for example.

What is not permitted is acting with malice, declared Bennett.

“You might not like that I have a (particular) opinion or belief, but as long as I'm not acting maliciously, targeting individuals or groups by incitement to violence or by saying they should have no rights or no place in society… that is crossing the line.”

If Bill C-9 in its current form advances from committee and passes third reading, Bennett said, “Christians have to become united in being very clear about why this is a problem and why we're opposed.”

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He also emphasized the importance of Christians reaching out to, support and defend the Jewish community, which has faced rising anti-Semitism since Hamas launched its Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel.

“There are certainly a lot of members in the Jewish community who are sympathetic to the government's decision in this regard, because they want to make sure that when people cite religious traditions to demonize Jews, those (incidents) are treated as hate speech. And I understand that concern,” said Bennett.