A view of Centre Block on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, the seat of Canada’s government, in a file photo. (Matthew Little/The Epoch Times)
The Liberal government has tabled a motion in the House of Commons to curtail debate and force votes on its controversial hate speech legislation, which has been stalled in committee for weeks.
The motion, tabled on March 5, proposes that the justice committee immediately resume clause-by-clause consideration of the bill, treat all remaining amendments as already moved, and require the chair to call a vote on the bill “without further debate on all remaining clauses and proposed amendments and subamendments.”
The motion adds that the chair will report the bill to the House of Commons no less than two sitting days after the completion of the clause-by-clause consideration. There will only be one day allocated for the report stage, and one day for third reading.
The House of Commons justice committee has been studying Bill C-9, also known as the Combatting Hate Act, which would create new criminal offences associated with intimidation and obstructing access to places of worship. The bill also seeks to create a new offence for intentionally promoting hatred through the public display of certain symbols.
The Conservatives and religious groups are opposed to a Bloc Québécois amendment to the bill—backed by the Liberals—that would remove the religious defence to hate speech in the Criminal Code. That defence currently protects individuals from charges of wilfully promoting hatred when expressing religious beliefs in good faith.
Conservative MP Andrew Lawton, who is on the justice committee, accused the Liberals in a March 5 social media post of trying to “cut off debate on Bill C-9” and force all of the amendments to a vote with no discussion.
Conservative House Leader Andrew Scheer had signalled on Feb. 10 that the Tories could work with the Liberals on the bill, saying the Tories could potentially support splitting Bill C-9 into two pieces of legislation, with the religious defence provisions carved out into a separate bill. He said the party could support legislation solely focused on creating additional protections around places of worship.
During a justice committee meeting on Feb. 23, the Liberals proposed adding a clause to the legislation that they said would address religious groups’ concerns about religious speech being classified as incitement to hatred. The clause would state that Canadians are not prohibited from making statements “on a matter of public interest,” including educational, religious, political, or scientific statements, as long as they do not willfully promote hatred against an identifiable group.
Liberal MP Patricia Lattanzio, parliamentary secretary to the justice minister, said the government had heard from religious groups, legal experts, and civil society about the removal of the religious defence from the Criminal Code. She said the current religious exemption created “interpretive ambiguity that allowed the provision to be invoked in ways Parliament never intended.”
Lattanzio added that freedom of expression remains “fully protected” by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Conservatives on the committee said the proposed clause would not bolster protections for religious freedom or freedom of expression, and did not address the concerns of religious groups.
Justice Minister Sean Fraser said on Feb. 24 that the Liberals could limit debate on Bill C-9 if it remained in committee for too long. He said the Liberal government had made a “commitment” to Canadians to advance the bill, and “at a certain point in time, of course, we will move forward if we have enough support.”