ADF: Canada’s new hate speech bill threatens religious freedom
Caroline MolloyCanada has introduced legislation to combat hate speech, but the proposal is ambiguous and removes safeguards that protect religious freedoms, according to legal nonprofit Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF).
Bryan Chai, ADF’s news and commentary editor, wrote that Bill C-9 was introduced after the Canadian government determined there was a rise in “antisemitism, Islamophobia, homophobia, and transphobia.” The bill would “make hate motivated crime a specific offence” and criminalize restricting access to places of worship or other areas used by an identifiable group, such as a school. It would also criminalize the promotion of hatred against a specific group through public terrorism or display of hate symbols.
Chai acknowledged that the bill’s provisions appear reasonable at first, but warned that “the language of protection and tolerance conceals — and ultimately invites — sweeping speech restrictions.” He noted that a proposed amendment to the bill would remove a statute that currently protects expressions of religious beliefs or arguments of a religious nature, provided they are made “in good faith.” One Canadian lawmaker has expressed concern that the statute allows individuals to commit hate crimes under the guise of religion.
According to Chai, eliminating the statute would also pose a threat to freedom of conscience in Canada.
“For decades, this provision served as a narrow but critical recognition that religious beliefs and expression — even when unpopular or countercultural — are protected,” he wrote. “It acknowledged that quoting Scripture, teaching doctrine, or expressing moral disagreement could be done sincerely and without malice. The amendment discards that distinction entirely. What replaces that safeguard is not clarity, but uncertainty.”
Chai argued that the bill’s ambiguous language is intentional and called it “a feature of laws that chill speech without formally banning it.”
He said that the bill also proposes removing the current requirement that Canada’s attorney general screen hate-propaganda charges before they can move forward, purportedly for “streamlining” the legal process. However, Chai pointed out that individual prosecutors, law enforcement officers, and others would be given more power to enforce or weaponize the hate speech law, resulting in a “system where belief can trigger investigation, accusation becomes punishment, and speech is regulated by whoever shouts ‘harm’ the loudest.”
Chai cautioned U.S. citizens against becoming complacent in the security of the First Amendment’s guarantee of free speech, noting that Canada’s bill serves as a warning of a shifting mindset that is already spreading across Europe as well.
