Evidence of meeting #17 for Canadian Heritage in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was symbol.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Vice-President, External Affairs and General Counsel, Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs
Mr. Julian, your question was about whether it is time for Canada to—
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Hedy Fry
Before Mr. Marceau answers, excuse me for the interruption. Richard, I will not take your time. I will give it to you again.
We have bells ringing. It means we have votes. I would like to get unanimous consent from the committee to go to the end of Mr. Julian's round so that the witnesses can leave and we can to go to vote.
Go ahead, Richard.
Vice-President, External Affairs and General Counsel, Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Mr. Julian, on your question of whether it is time for Canada to ban hate symbols, my answer is a clear yes.
Director of Policy, Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies
Is your question “Is it time to ban hate symbols?” or “Is it time to ban Nazi relics and Holocaust relics?”
NDP
Peter Julian NDP New Westminster—Burnaby, BC
My bill talks about Nazi emblems, Confederate flags and Confederate emblems, and KKK emblems. Is it time to adopt that kind of legislation?
Director of Policy, Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies
I have to agree with my colleagues that it is time and it would be a very useful advancement. For us, it would be one more tool.
Yes.
NDP
Peter Julian NDP New Westminster—Burnaby, BC
May I ask, Mr. Levitt, if you have anything to add in 15 seconds, sir?
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Hedy Fry
I will give you the extra minute that I took to ask for unanimous consent.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies
One of the things my colleague Ms. Kirzner-Roberts talked about in her remarks was what we're seeing happening in schools to our kids. All of a sudden, these symbols are appearing in classrooms. We had situations in Toronto of Sieg Heil salutes, Hitler salutes. A lot of it's coming off the Internet, as our colleague here from the Neuberger Centre talked about. We're seeing these things being pervasive. If this can help bring a close and reduce the amount of this hate online and in our society, yes.
NDP
President, Hindu Federation
Madam Chair and Mr. Julian, thank you.
Banning the signs of hate is not going to resolve the problem. We need to address the groups that are promoting the hate. We need to address the medium that is allowing them to promote the hate.
We need to create laws that will ban or restrict hate in any form of media. We have the power. When an organization is created, it has to be incorporated. It must be investigated in depth to see what its objectives are, and if it's found to be promoting hate, the law is already there in the land to address that.
I think we recognize the problem, but maybe we are addressing it from the wrong end. When we do this, innocent people get hurt. We need to address these organizations that are promoting hate and hold them to the law and let the letter of the law address them and put them under control immediately.
President, Hindu Federation
By banning the signs or stopping the selling of signs, we are not achieving our intent. Next door's door is open. It's like trying to ban marijuana. Today we have made it legal. We tried so long to ban it, and it's now legal. We need to stop the abuses of marijuana and we need to stop the promoters of hate. We need to address them at this point.
Thank you.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Hedy Fry
Thank you, Mr. Sharma. I would like you to wrap up, because votes are something that we must attend.
I'm going to give the last word to Mr. Brereton.
Executive Director, Urban Rez Solutions Social Enterprise
In terms of the question of whether it is time for Canada to ban hate symbols, my answer is yes.
Fear fuels hate, and it's time now to educate and also provide the reality in terms of where these fears are coming from and set an example for the world that Canada can take the step of banning hate but also of educating.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Hedy Fry
Thank you very much.
I want to thank the witnesses for waiting such a long time to begin the meeting. You had a lot of patience. I want to thank you for your very excellent presentations and your clear and concise answers.
We're going to have to leave to vote now. I want to thank you again for coming.
The meeting is now adjourned.