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OTTAWA – This afternoon CCF Litigation Director Christine Van Geyn will appear before the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights to deliver an urgent warning about Bill C-9, the Carney government’s proposed hate speech and hate crimes legislation. A live webcast and recording will be available here, beginning at 3:30 p.m. ET.

The CCF urges Parliament to withdraw Bill C-9 entirely, as it would lower the threshold for criminal speech, remove important oversight of prosecutions, and risk punishing protected expression. In the alternative, the CCF recommends the following key amendments to restore constitutional safeguards: 

• Maintain a definition of hate that tracks with current case law,
• Maintain the requirement for attorney general consent for hate crime offences,
• Remove the standalone hate offence in proposed section 320.1001(1),
• Remove the prohibition of “hate symbols,”
• Remove new provisions on intimidation, and
• Keep the defences of truth and good faith religious opinion in section 319(3).

Read the CCF’s complete brief on Bill C-9, detailing our concerns about its threat to free expression, by clicking here.