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A Canadian hate speech bill is drawing backlash from critics who warn it could chill religious speech and expose some people to prosecution for quoting the Bible.
Bill C-9, the “Combatting Hate Act,” introduced by Canadian Liberal Justice Minister Sean Fraser, passed the House of Commons on March 25 and now heads to the Senate. The measure would expand Canada’s hate speech laws, create a new hate-crime offense and add penalties for intimidating or blocking people from accessing houses of worship, cultural spaces, schools, senior residences and cemeteries.
The sharpest criticism of the bill focuses on its repeal of a long-standing defense for religious speech in some criminal hate speech cases.
Christian and Muslim groups say the change could chill sermons, religious debate and other faith-based expression, while the Liberal government and some Jewish advocacy groups say the bill is aimed at combating antisemitism, not criminalizing religion.
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Andrew Lawton, a Canadian Conservative member of Parliament who opposes the bill, said the legislation could leave faith communities vulnerable to prosecution for sharing their beliefs or quoting Scripture.
“Bill C-9 makes it easier for people of faith and others to be criminally charged because of views that other people take offense to,” he told Fox News Digital. “The bill weakens protections for freedom of expression and freedom of religion, especially with the removal of the longstanding religious defense, which has stipulated that religious beliefs and religious texts expressed in good faith cannot be seen as ‘hateful.'”
Lawton said the bill’s safeguards are not enough, warning that Liberal officials have already signaled that people could be prosecuted for quoting certain passages from the Bible.
“It’s not for government to decide which religious beliefs are legitimate or not,” he added. “People of faith can and should debate this. But it’s incredibly concerning when a Liberal cabinet minister says that certain verses of Scripture are so inherently hateful that prosecutors should be able to press charges against those who quote them.”
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During a House justice committee hearing last October, Liberal Party MP Marc Miller, Minister of Canadian Identity and Culture, suggested certain passages from the Bible were inherently hateful toward homosexuals, and questioned the Criminal Code’s initial carve out for religious statements made in “good faith.”
“In Leviticus, Deuteronomy and Romans, there are passages with clear hatred towards, for example, homosexuals,” Miller said, according to the hearing transcript. “I don’t understand how the concept of good faith could be invoked if someone were literally invoking a passage from, in this case, the Bible, though there are other religious texts that say the same thing. How do we somehow constitute this as being said in good faith? Clearly, there are situations in these texts where statements are hateful. They should not be used to invoke … or be a defense.”
In December, Liberal MPs on the House Justice Committee backed a Bloc Québécois proposal to remove the religious defense, the CBC reported.
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The bill would also create a new offense for willfully promoting hatred by displaying certain terrorist-linked or Nazi symbols in public. It separately creates a hate-crime offense for committing a federal crime when it is motivated by hatred based on factors such as race, religion, sex, sexual orientation or gender identity.
At the same time, the bill says speech does not incite or promote hatred solely because it “discredits, humiliates, hurts or offends.” It also clarifies that the law does not ban statements on matters of public interest, including religious statements made in discussion, publication or debate, so long as they do not willfully promote hatred.
Lawton said he is concerned about how “bad actors” will “weaponize” the hate-crime legislation in an attempt to “silence opposing voices.”
“The bill simply shouldn’t pass,” he told Fox News Digital. “My colleagues and I tried to minimize the harms of the bill as best as we could. We were able to make some improvements by amendment in the committee stage, but many of the key concerns still remain. We tried to put in strong language affirming that good faith religious beliefs could not be classified as hateful but the Liberals rejected these amendments.”
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Justice Minister Sean Fraser denied the bill would threaten religious freedom in Canada.
“Canada’s commitment to freedom of religion is unwavering. Freedom of religion is a fundamental guarantee under section 2(a) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Nothing in this amendment changes that,” Fraser said in a statement released on Dec. 9. “Canadians will always be able to pray, preach, teach, interpret scripture, and express religious belief in good faith, without fear of criminal sanction.”
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Fraser did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
According to data released by Canada’s government in March, police-reported hate crimes have risen for six years in a row and are up 169% since 2018.
Canada, Scotland, Australia and the European Union have all moved in recent years to strengthen hate-crime or hate-speech legislation. In Malta, a Christian man faced jail time after being prosecuted for publicly sharing his testimony of leaving homosexuality. He was found not guilty in March, after a three-year legal battle.
Vice President JD Vance and the State Department have also increasingly criticized censorship and attacks on free speech in Europe.
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