Catholic and Christian organizations are expressing appreciation for the federal government’s willingness to refine Bill C-9, the Combatting Hate Act, to remedy religious freedom concerns, but want this spirit more explicitly conveyed in the text of the legislation.

Derek Ross, the executive director and general counsel of the Christian Legal Fellowship (CLF), Canada’s national association of Christian lawyers and law students, has participated in justice and human rights committee deliberations about this bill as an expert witness.

Ross shared his delight about the apparent progress in the right direction — in the form of an amendment from MP Patricia Lattanzio, the parliamentary secretary to Minister of Justice and Attorney General Sean Fraser.

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“We view the proposed amendment and the government’s public statements in support of it as an encouraging step in the right direction,” wrote Ross in an email to the Register. “We appreciated the parliamentary secretary’s affirmation that ‘the bill will state in plain terms that nothing in this legislation affects worship, sermons, prayer, religious education, peaceful debate, or even the good faith reading and discussion of religious texts.’

“However, it is important that this be expressed more clearly in the text of the Bill itself,” continued Ross. “This is why CLF, and many others, urged the justice committee not to repeal the defence for good faith religious expression.”

On Dec. 9, the Liberal and Bloc members of the committee voted to remove the religious speech protections from Section 319 of the Criminal Code.

The amendment Lattanzio introduced during the Feb. 23 committee meeting says “nothing in subsection 319(2) or (2.2) shall be construed as prohibiting a person from communicating a statement on a matter of public interest, including an educational, religious, political or scientific statement made in the course of a discussion, publication or debate, if they do not willfully promote hatred, hatred against an identifiable group by communicating the statement.”

The crux of this revision also applies to subsection 319(2.1). However, that provision specifically targets the willful promotion of anti-Semitism through statements that condone, deny or downplay the Holocaust.

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Phil Horgan, the president and general counsel of the Catholic Civil Rights League, shared that “it is difficult for me to assess the proposed amendment brought forward from the Department of Justice, as it seems to suggest that a charge will not be laid if there is an expression on a religious topic that is in the public interest.”

He added this “may leave open the possibility of a charge if the Crown is of the view that a discussion of certain religious texts is not in the public interest, and in the absence of the good faith religious defence, a pastor or faith leader would be at the peril of a charge.”

Horgan took note of Lattanzio’s declaration, but suggested her language “would be somewhat better to make clear that charges from comments in that context will not lead to charges under the Criminal Code.”

Conservative members of the committee, namely Andrew Lawton, Roman Baber and Larry Brock, have also critiqued the language of the amendment.

Lawton suggested “it is circular reasoning at best,” and it will preserve the latitude for a hate charge to be brought against someone citing a religious text.

He then called for a subamendment to repeal the “if they do not willfully promote” provisos in order to bolster protections. It was defeated during the Feb. 25 meeting.

Bill C-9 has now remained in clause-by-clause consideration for over three months. Fraser told media outlets that Liberals may soon limit debate to advance the legislation that, if passed, would also criminalize intimidation and obstruction outside of establishments used by faith-based groups and ban certain terror or hate symbols in public.

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“Well, at a certain point in time, we are going to say: we want to make good on our campaign commitment,” said Fraser. “We made a commitment to Canadians to advance these important protections to ensure Canadians can enjoy religious freedoms in practice, not just on paper. At a certain point in time, of course, we will move forward if we have enough support.”

The next potential justice and human rights committee could be scheduled as early as March 9.