Liberals and Conservatives vote to prioritize bail bill over study on controversial hate crimes law

OTTAWA — Members of Parliament on the House of Commons’ justice committee voted Monday in favour of pausing work on a controversial government hate crimes bill, to instead turn attention to the Liberals’ bail reform package. 

The move comes as Prime Minister Mark Carney sets his sights on seeing his suite of criminal reforms passed as Parliament resumes, with the Opposition Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre pledging that his MPs stand ready to help. 

With a spirit of cooperation in the air, MPs on the justice committee, save for the Bloc Quebecois, voted in favour of a Liberal motion to pause its clause-by-clause study of Bill C-9 and instead focus their efforts on studying Bill C-14, the government’s latest measures to toughen access to bail for individuals with a history of violence.

Moments before, Conservative MPs on the committee tried to pass their own motion, suggesting to do the same, which was voted down. Larry Brock, the party’s justice critic, said it was clear the committee had reached an “impasse” on the government’s hate crimes bill.

The committee’s plan is to now return to the study of Bill C-9, known by its legislative title as the “Combatting Hate Act,” once it finishes looking at the Liberals’ proposed bail measures, including hearing testimony from Justice Minister Sean Fraser. They next meet on Wednesday.

Opposition House Leader Andrew Scheer later appeared before reporters to celebrate the committee’s move as being a “Conservative idea” that government MPs around the parliamentary justice table finally accepted after more than a dozen attempts from its party’s representatives to prioritize bail over what Scheer slammed as a government “censorship bill.”

Scheer said there were “elements” of the Liberal bail reform package that Conservatives could get behind unlike with the government’s hate crime legislation.

The bill, introduced back in September, fulfilled a campaign commitment Carney made during last year’s federal election to table legislation to better protect places of worship from having access to these sites blocked.

It seeks to do so by creating a new intimidation offence that would not only cover an individual’s access to religious buildings such as a temple, church or synagogue, but any building where an identifiable group gathers, including gay bars.

The legislation also proposes to criminalize the display of symbols linked to government-designed terror symbols in certain circumstances.

Its introduction followed two-year’s worth of calls from Jewish advocacy groups for the government and police to do more to protect members of the Jewish community, which have been dealing with sustained anti-Israel protests related to the Israel-Hamas war, triggered by the attacks from Hamas militants against southern Israel on Oct. 3, 2023, as well a police-reported rise in antisemitic violence.

Civil society groups have raised the alarm over what impact the bill’s provisions would have on lawful protests, warning its language was overly broad.

Other critics have expressed worries over how police would be able to differentiate between what may be the display of symbol linked to a government-designated terror symbol and Arabic phrases that have co-opted by terrorist groups.

Concerns about the legislation only grew after the Liberals signalled plans to adopt an amendment from the Bloc Quebecois that would remove from the Criminal Code the religious exemptions from the country’s hate speech laws, in exchange for helping the bill pass through the minority Parliament.

Religious leaders from across Christian and Muslim faiths quickly warned that removing this section could chill the teaching of religious texts.

The Liberals formally adopted the change back in December, with Fraser pledging to hear directly from concerned stakeholders. He has also defended the move as necessary to help pass the government bill, while pointing to how religious freedoms would not be touched, given the protections granted under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Several Conservative MPs spent their holiday break meeting with religious leaders and other concerned community members in different town halls across the country, warning how the measure amounts to an attack on religious freedoms.

Last week, Liberal MP Salma Zahid shared photos from a meeting she attended where guests shared their concerns over the bill, with the MP pledging in a post on X that she would be taking their feedback “back to Ottawa.”

Speaking before MPs on the justice committee met, Government House Leader Steven MacKinnon told reporters that Liberals were “sensitive” when asked about the pushback coming from religious leaders.

He showed no signs the government was considering any kind of a reworking of the bill, which Green Party Leader Elizabeth May told reporters she believes the legislation needs.

As a Christian herself, the MP said she was less concerned about the removal of religious defences from the country’s Criminal Code which she believed could simply be better clarified, than other parts of the bill.

“The part that bothers me more is the delegitimizing of lawful Charter-protected rights to protest if, without your knowledge, you happen to be within blocks of a place of worship that you didn’t know was there, and behind you someone’s holding a flag that you didn’t know was there.”

Still, May said she has been “inundated” with concerns from constituents and other Canadians about touching the existing religious exemption.

“It’s important to respect religious freedoms, and every Canadian’s right to worship as they wish to worship, and I think that C-9 has become a flash point for the wrong reasons.”

National Post

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