By Marco Vigliotti – Editor-in-Chief of iPolitics
The federal government must offer clear guidance to prosecutors to ensure the new anti-hate law doesn’t trample on Canadians’ Charter-protected right to protest, says a coalition of human rights and faith groups.
They said in an open letter released on Friday that they were “deeply troubled” by the Carney government’s decision to end debate and force a final vote on Bill C-9 this week, warning the legislation “raise significant concerns” about the impact on free speech and peaceful assembly.
“While the objective of combatting hate is both legitimate and necessary, legislative measures should be precise, evidence-based, and accompanied by appropriate safeguards to minimize risks of overbreadth and inconsistent application,” read the letter, which was signed by 65 organizations.
Khaled Alqazzaz, the executive director of the Canadian Muslim Public Affairs Council, the first listed signatory of the letter, said in an interview on Friday that C-9 was written in a “very vague and broad” manner that can allow for an extensive expansion of police and law enforcement authority if not reined in by Ottawa.
“Unfortunately, the bill came without much of explanatory notices or guides for implementation or language to restrict that implementation. This was even asked in the amendment phases, whether at the House level or at the Senate level,” he said.
“So, we hope now [that] the bill is passed, and in good faith, that the government is truthful to the words, and in the implementation, they do not leave it abstract.”
The International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group, Ligue des droits et libertés, Centre for Free Expression and Canadian Civil Liberties Association were also among the first signatories.
Bill C-9 criminalizes harassing or intimidating people near places of worships or facilities used by identifiable groups, and makes it a crime to display certain terrorist or hate symbols.
The bill stemmed directly from a commitment in the Liberals’ 2025 election platform and was seen as a direct response to concerns over anti-Israel protesters behaving aggressively towards Jewish residents and making chants glorifying violence against Jews.
It has been derided by some critics as a bubble law that would effectively ban protests near churches, synagogues or other religious institutions.
Alqazzaz said the bill grants excessive discretion to policing agencies to determine if certain gatherings are designed to harass or intimidate, and whether a particular institution qualifies as a place that an identifiable group visits.
While the government has stated it’s not the intent of the bill to halt peaceful protests, he said they need to pass the message along down the line to ensure that doesn’t happen, or they run risk of putting a chilling effect on these sorts of demonstrations.
“All communities that objected [to C-9] now will be monitoring the implementation,” he warned.
In the letter, the coalition also criticized the government for banning all symbols associated with any entities on the designated terror group list, including those that bear a close resemblance. It warned that relying on that one list as a basis for criminal liability “raises concerns regarding transparency, procedural fairness, and the breadth of executive discretion.”
With C-9 now law, the coalition said Ottawa has an “obligation to ensure that the legislation’s enforcement fully respects constitutionally protected rights” and called for “clear prosecutorial and policing guidance, transparency, and continued oversight to ensure these commitments are upheld in practice.”
Alqazzaz said these groups want the prime minister to succeed in strengthening Canada but not at the expense of “undermining civil liberties [and] the Charter.”
“It’s very important that as he pushes forward legislation, as the government and agencies implement this legislation, that they maintain that concept of respect for rights and freedoms.”
C-9 was one of the government’s most contentious bills in the past year, but not for the reasons flagged by the coalition.
It became lightning rod in the House after the Liberals agreed to a Bloc Quebecois amendment to remove the religious belief exemption from the hate speech crime. The Conservatives warned it risks criminalizing religious teachings, while the Liberals said the exemption was never successfully used and freedom of religion is protected by the Charter.
With the Bloc’s support, the bill moved through the House earlier this spring.
Advocate says adding noose as hate symbol is the start of an ‘important conversation’ on anti-Black racism
A Senate committee attempted to amend the bill to criminalize residential school denialism but this was rejected by the wider Chamber.
The Senate’s only change was to add the noose as a prohibited hate symbol, which the government accepted when the bill returned to the House for a final vote this week.
Craig Wellington, CEO of the Black Opportunity Fund, credited the government for the change, but questioned why the bill didn’t originally target anti-Black racism as Black Canadians are consistently the leading targets of hate offences.
“How is it that legislation that is being developed specifically to address hate crimes against vulnerable groups, in no place acknowledged anti-Black hate, or the manifestations of of anti-black hate, including the noose?” Wellington asked in an interview.
“We advocated very strongly that if this legislation is going to acknowledge hate, it must acknowledge the group that is the leading target of hate, and not doing that is significantly problematic and effectively sending a message that Black people are invisible [and] that Black people don’t matter.”
Wellington said there remains a lack of broad public knowledge of Canada’s history of anti-Black racism, and the noose continues to be used as a symbol to intimidate and harass Black Canadians. He cited recent allegations that Montreal police officers cut the dreadlocks off from Black suspects and an incident during the pandemic where an Alberta surgeon tied a noose at a Grande Prairie hospital to target a Black surgical assistant.
“The use of a nose is an explicit death threat, and I think that’s what the government, the Senate acknowledged,” Wellington said, crediting Justice Minister Sean Fraser, senators and members of the parliamentary Black caucus for their work on the bill and “starting an important conversation about Canada’s history and Canada’s present.”
