{"id":10744,"date":"2025-09-27T00:54:15","date_gmt":"2025-09-27T04:54:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/?p=10744"},"modified":"2025-09-27T00:54:50","modified_gmt":"2025-09-27T04:54:50","slug":"canadian-constitution-foundation-warns-liberal-hate-crimes-bill-raises-free-speech-concerns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/?p=10744","title":{"rendered":"Canadian Constitution Foundation Warns Liberal Hate Crimes Bill Raises Free Speech Concerns"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<ol>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/theccf.ca\"><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/theccf.ca\/liberal-hate-crimes-bill-raises-free-speech-concerns\/\">s<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/theccf.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/aubrey-odom-siFcnHlNtlo-unsplash-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Liberal hate crimes bill raises free speech concerns\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Liberal hate crimes bill raises free speech concerns<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>Post author:<a href=\"https:\/\/theccf.ca\/author\/rphillips\/\">The CCF<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Post published:September 19, 2025<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Post category:<a href=\"https:\/\/theccf.ca\/category\/news\/\">News<\/a> \/ <a href=\"https:\/\/theccf.ca\/category\/press-releases\/\">Press Releases<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The Canadian Constitution Foundation (CCF) is concerned that key aspects of the Carney government\u2019s proposed hate crimes legislation would unduly infringe on freedom of expression.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Among other changes to the Criminal Code,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.parl.ca\/legisinfo\/en\/bill\/45-1\/c-9\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Bill C-9<\/a>&nbsp;would establish a standalone hate crime provision that would allow for up to life in prison for committing an act motivated by hatred, would create new intimidation and obstruction crimes related to buildings used for religious worship or primarily by identifiable groups, and would establish a new crime of wilfully promoting hatred by displaying certain symbols such as terrorist flags or Nazi swastikas in a public place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The CCF has identified the following concerns:&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Overbreadth of the hate-symbol provision (s. 319(2.2))<\/strong>: It could chill legitimate speech in cases where it is unclear whether a symbol is \u201cprincipally associated with a terrorist group\u201d or \u201cresembles a symbol\u201d outlawed under the provision;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Extreme sentencing under the new hate crime offence (s. 320.1001)<\/strong>: A person who commits mischief against property motivated by hatred could face up to seven years in prison, rather than the current two years;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Removal of Attorney General oversight<\/strong>: The bill would allow police to charge a person with hate speech without receiving the Attorney General\u2019s consent, which is an important safeguard for freedom of expression that has been part of Canada\u2019s law for decades; and<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Lowering the threshold for \u201chatred\u201d<\/strong>: The definition of \u201chatred\u201d added as a new section 319(7) appears to lower the bar for hate speech set by the Supreme Court of Canada in cases like R v Keegstra and R v Whatcott, which could chill speech and public debate.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>CCF Executive Director Joanna Baron questioned the need for parts of the bill considering Canada already has \u201crobust hate propaganda laws.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cCreating new offences for hate-motivated crimes and lowering safeguards like Attorney General oversight is unnecessary and invites excessive prosecutions,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe new hate symbol offence only targets displays done with the intent to promote hatred, but without Attorney General consent as a safeguard, there is a real risk that people using these symbols in art, journalism, or protest will be charged first and vindicated later,\u201d Baron added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>CCF Counsel Josh Dehaas said that while he\u2019s pleased to see that the federal government has tailored its provisions on intimidation and obstruction of places of worship to capture criminal conduct rather than protected speech and protest, he is concerned that the new definition of \u201chatred\u201d will chill legitimate expression.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m also very wary that banning hate symbols could be a slippery slope,\u201d Dehaas said. \u201cIn free countries, we ought to criminalize violence, not speech, so this sets a worrying precedent.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Liberal hate crimes bill raises free speech concerns The Canadian Constitution Foundation (CCF) is concerned that key aspects of the Carney government\u2019s proposed hate crimes legislation would unduly infringe on freedom of expression.&nbsp; Among other changes to the Criminal Code,&nbsp;Bill &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/?p=10744\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[6071,6070,2278,5410],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10744"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10744"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10744\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10745,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10744\/revisions\/10745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}