The Justice Committee’s
changes to Bill C-9 were tabled in the House of Commons today.
The
next step will be one day of debate and votes on the committee’s changes on Monday,
March 23. This is the second last step the bill goes through in the House of Commons.
New changes to the bill can be proposed and voted on at this stage, although the time to do so will be very short.
We’d like to focus on three points about the Justice Committee’s changes.
1. The committee tightened the definition of hate so that it is closer to the high bar that’s been set by the courts. The committee also replaced the requirement that the Attorney General consent to hate crime charges being laid.
These kinds of change were recommended by the EFC and many others. They improve the bill.
2. The religious belief defence was removed. This defence would no longer be available to someone charged with wilfully promoting hatred under section 319(2) of the
Criminal Code.
Although it has been rarely used and never successfully, we think this defence is an important safeguard for religious expression.
We think this change made in committee should be rejected by the House of Commons.
3. In response to concerns about the removal of the religious belief defence expressed by the faith community, the committee added a new clarifying clause. This clause underlines that a person is only considered to have wilfully promoted hatred if they intended to promote hatred.
We believe this clause doesn’t provide the clarification or protection for religious expression that is needed if the religious belief defence is removed.
In the House of Commons, the Justice Minister
said, rather than having religious belief as a defence to the wilful promotion of hatred, that the government would rather clarify that the ordinary practice of faith is never a hate crime.
He
said, “Mr. Speaker, in addition to the very clear and well-established
Charter protections that exist, we heard concerns that people wanted more certainty. That is why we were prepared to make further amendments to this bill to make
absolutely clear that reading holy texts, participating in one's community of faith, engaging in services that are part of life as a community of faith, as a religious leader or as a member of a congregation, would all be permitted. We are willing to amend the legislation to
put words to that effect directly in the bill, in addition to the
Charter protections.” (emphasis added)
However, the clarifying clause added by the committee, as written, doesn’t provide that clarity or protection.
When the Parliamentary Secretary introduced the new clarifying clause at the Justice Committee, she
said, “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, the clause that the committee added to the bill does not state this in plain terms. It
says:
“For greater certainty, nothing in subsection 319(2) or (2.2) of the Criminal Code [the wilful promotion of hatred offence] 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 wilfully promote hatred against an identifiable group by communicating the statement.”
What's next?
The EFC is asking for the language in the ‘for greater certainty’ clause to reflect the strong, clear statements that are being made by the Justice Minister and Parliamentary Secretary.
We encourage you to ask your MP to include strong, clear language that protects religious expression in Bill C-9’s clarifying clause when the bill is debated in the House of Commons on March 23.
Find your MP’s contact information
here. Call, write or visit your MP to ask for this change. MPs are in their ridings the week before the debate.
Please join us in praying for our country’s leaders, including our local MPs, the Justice Minister and the Prime Minister. Pray also for the good of our country.
Above all, pray that God would be lifted up and honoured in our witness. That his grace, truth and mercy would be evident to all.
See
TheEFC.ca/C9 for the EFC's full list of resources on Bill C-9.