As Liberals struggle with anti-hate bill, Conservatives say they would support its core measures
OTTAWA —The Opposition Conservatives signalled Tuesday that the party would be willing to support a narrower version of the government’s anti-hate bill, as the Liberals struggle to find a path forward for the legislation.
With the parliamentary justice committee set to meet on Wednesday, negotiations between parties remain ongoing for how the Liberals might try to make progress on the legislation known as C-9.
Titled the “Combatting Hate Act,” the bill seeks to create new intimidation and obstruction offences around buildings, like places of worship or anywhere an identifiable group gathers, as well as make it a crime to wilfully promote hate by displaying certain terror symbols.
Controversy erupted when the Liberals struck a deal with the Bloc Quebecois to remove the longstanding religious defences that exist for the sections of the Criminal Code targeting advocating genocide and the wilful promotion of hate through an amendment to the bill, in exchange for the Quebec party helping it through the minority Parliament.
Many Christian and Muslim groups have voiced concerns that the change could lead to a chilling of the teaching and preaching of religious texts.
Justice Minister Sean Fraser said on Tuesday the government would seek to address those worries by being willing to add “text directly in the bill to indicate that the willful promotion of hatred is not including reading religious texts or ordinary practice of faith.”
The Liberals last month hit pause on its study of the bill to instead fast-track its legislation on bail reform. The clause-by-clause review of C-9 was scheduled to resume on Monday, but was cancelled just as the meeting was set to get underway, with both Liberal and Conservative MPs citing ongoing negotiations.
Conservative House Leader Andrew Scheer told reporters on Tuesday that the party could not support the bill in its current form, slamming it as a “censorship bill.”
Rather, he said, the party told the government there was “cross-party agreement” when it came to the parts of the bill that proposed creating additional protections around places of worship to prevent someone’s access being impeded by protests.
“If they were solely focused on that, those are elements of that bill that could pass very quickly,” Scheer said.
Passing C-9 would fulfil a campaign promise Prime Minister Mark Carney made during last year’s federal election campaign to legislate more safeguards around places of worship.
When Fraser introduced it last fall, he said other measures, such as criminalizing the display of certain terror and hate symbols in public, were added after consulting with stakeholders. Inking a definition of “hatred” into the Criminal Code was a measure from the Liberals’ previous Online Harms Act, which died when the last election was triggered.
Major Jewish advocacy groups have called for parties to support C-9, pointing to a rise in antisemitic incidents targeted at buildings like synagogues.
Asked whether the Conservatives wanted to see the bill split or reintroduced, Scheer on Tuesday pointed to how the Liberals did just that when it came its border security legislation, which faced strong pushback from civil liberties groups and Conservative MPs.
“If the government chose to take the approach, I can signal that Conservatives would support those components of the bill,” Scheer said.
He added: “There’s broad based support amongst Canadians, amongst different faith groups, amongst different parties, that … people should be able to access those sites, those places of worship, those community centres, free from intimidation and harassment.”
Bloc Quebecois Leader Yves-Francois Blanchet, whose party has previously accused the Liberals of buckling to pressure from the Conservatives and the presence of religious groups in the room as MPs were to debate their amendment, suggested on Tuesday the Liberals did not want to see their own bill go ahead.
He said his party has plans to bring forward its own bill to the minority Parliament to see the religious defences removed from the Criminal Code because he believes the government is not “serious,” saying the Liberals were “wasting” its amendment.
Blanchet said the party would entertain any request from the Liberals to see the parties limit debate on C-9 when the committee resumes its study, to ensure progress on the bill was not stalled.
Earlier in the day, Fraser said the Liberals were working with the Quebec party.
The minister accused the Conservatives of wanting to gum up the bill’s progress, saying the Liberals have demonstrated a willingness to address other concerns within the legislation, from its proposed definition of “hatred” and the proposed removal of the need for provincial attorney general consent to lay a hate speech charge.
Nearly 40 civil society advocacy groups have nevertheless called for the bill to be pulled altogether, citing concerns over its potential to infringe on legal protests and the ability of police to properly identify when a hate symbol was displayed in public.
Some have also warned about proposed amendments that, if accepted, would seek it expand its scope even further to target the promotion of terrorist activity.
National Post
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