In November 2023, Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet tabled private member's Bill C-367, which would amend the Criminal Code to remove the "good faith" religious defence in the section on hate speech. Some social media users have latched on to this bill, saying that Canada is considering making it illegal to pray in public or read aloud from the bible. This is false. The bill in question is a private member's bill that is very unlikely to ever become law and an expert on hate speech says even if it did receive royal assent, simply praying in public or reading aloud from the bible would not become illegal.
In one case, , formerly known as Twitter, which has been viewed 1.3 million times, shows a screen grab of an article on the website with the false headline Trudeau: Praying in Public, Reading Aloud From Bible Is ‘Hate Speech’ To Be Severely Punished.
Similar claims have been made on , and .
Rating: False
is not linked to Justin Trudeau's Liberals, and contrary to the People's Voice headline, Trudeau never suggested praying or reading from a Bible would be considered hate speech.
The bill comes from Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet. It would remove paragraphs of the ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø Criminal Code, whichsay that a person shall not be convicted of certain hate speech offences if "in good faith, the person expressed or attempted to establish by an argument an opinion on a religious subject or an opinion based on a belief in a religious text."
When he tabled his bill in November 2023, the changes would "prevent the promotion of hatred and antisemitism."
"There is a cost to living together and to living in harmony in society. That cost may simply be to refrain from giving inappropriate and undue privileges to people within a society who use them to disturb the peace and harmony, especially if those privileges enable people to sow hatred or wish death upon others based on a belief in some divine power," he said.
"That is even more true in a country that claims to be secular or that claims that there is a separation between church and state. That is why it is high time that someone took action."
Trudeau said he agrees the rise in Islamophobia and antisemitism in Canada is alarming and that his government will be looking at the bill "to see whether it can help combat hate and incitement of violence."
Blanchet's press secretary, Joanie Riopel, said in an email the bill was tabled in the context of the war in the Middle East, and said they've noted an increase in hate speech, violence and antisemitism in Quebec and Canada, notably an imam in Montreal who reportedly called for the
Riopel said the "only purpose" of the bill is to remove religious exemptions for public incitement to hatred, wilful promotion of hatred and wilful promotion of antisemitism.
She said they don’t know yet when the bill will be debated on second reading.
Private members' bills are bills that are introduced in the House of Commons by a member of Parliament who is not a cabinet minister or parliamentary secretary.
They rarely become law. A report in the says that in 2000 only one per cent of the 312 private members' bills introduced ended up receiving royal assent.
show only five private members' bills have become law in the House of Commons since 2022.
High bar for the 'extreme' speech
Richard Moon, a professor of law at the University of Windsor, says the defences to the hate speech provisions rarely if ever play any role in the adjudication of hate speech cases, which themselves hardly ever make it to court.
He said the courts have set a high bar for the "extreme" speech that qualifies as hate speech by vilifying a group with intent.
"We're talking about speech that describes the members of a group as inherently violent or as subhuman, animalistic, as preying on children, these are the kinds of things that the courts have said would count as hate speech," he said.
"We're not just talking about things that are offensive or hurtful or involve stereotypes or generalizations."
He said it's "hard to imagine" how anything that meets that extreme would be done in "good faith."
"It just never arises as a meaningful defence. I'm sure that people in a few cases have raised it, but it just hasn't played any role," he said.
He said simply quoting the Bible is not hate speech.
"There are different cases, usually under human rights code around the question of discrimination, in which biblical verses, (such) as in Leviticus that refer to homosexuality is sinful or even homosexuals being put to death, have not been found to amount to discrimination. Generally speaking, simply describing homosexuality as immoral or sinful simply does not count as hate speech," he said.
"It's just not an issue. If somebody actually says, without making some oblique reference to text, (that) gays should be put to death, or gays are pedophiles, that might well count as hate speech."
Sources
Claims can be found on X (), in a now-deleted TikTok post (, ), on Facebook () and on YouTube ()
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Paragraphs and ) of the Criminal Code of Canada
for Nov. 28, 2024 ()
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