Justice Committee on June 10th, 2024

[Rhéal Fortin, Bloc, Rivière-du-Nord, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Ms. Macfarlane, I haven't had a chance to ask you any questions yet.

In your opinion, should we not put an end once and for all to discrimination, violence against the Muslim and Jewish communities, and all other forms of discrimination based on race, skin colour, gender or any other form? Have we not reached the point where we must ban all expressions of hatred from the public space? In short, shouldn't the promotion of hatred in Canada be prohibited, regardless of the reason given, including a religious text or an editorial?

[Dr. Julie Macfarlane]

I think it's extremely important that we remain very vigilant about hate speech. I am a big supporter of the need to have hate speech principles to protect people, but I also think one of the things we do in our legal system is exclude any kind of reasoning—it's very interesting—that might be based on a religious text. If you see a Muslim woman trying, for example, to enforce her maher, the agreement she's made under Islamic law for an amount of money to be paid in the event of divorce, the courts won't accept any arguments that are based on references to religious texts. That seems to me to be completely ridiculous. I don't understand why we would not include references to religious texts as part of what we want to protect with respect to hate speech.

[Rhéal Fortin, Bloc, Rivière-du-Nord, QC]

Thank you, Ms. Macfarlane.

I'm done, Madam Chair. Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Lena Metlege Diab]

Thank you very much.

For the next two and a half minutes we have Mr. Garrison.

Go ahead, please.

[Randall Garrison, NDP, Esquimalt—Saanich—Sooke, BC]

Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

One topic that has not come up today is the role of the social media giants in furthering disinformation and hatred.

I'll start with Ms. Mazhar.

I wonder whether there have been any positive experiences from trying to work with the social media companies to stop the distribution of disinformation and hate.

[Fauzia Mazhar]

Thank you, Mr. Garrison.

For us, as a regional organization with very little capacity, few staff and all that, it's beyond our capacity to actually hold these big giants to any kind of account. We have seen a tremendous increase in the reporting of online hate, and it's coming from all parts of Canada. You wouldn't believe it—it's coming from Burnaby and Surrey and everywhere else. People want us to intervene. We are trying to learn how we can intervene in these cases. They've been sending us information, this year especially.

At this time, I don't have an answer. We don't have the capacity, but of course we look to the government to do things there. There is some accountability by these big giants.

[Randall Garrison, NDP, Esquimalt—Saanich—Sooke, BC]

Thank you.

It's the same question for you, Mr. Panju. What about trying to hold them accountable for promoting hatred?

[Husein Panju]

We're familiar with Bill C-63, which is currently before the House. It's a complex issue. I think there needs to be some more dialogue with our groups on a more directed basis. You're right: Equity-seeking groups like ours are often the victims and the targets of hate speech, but there also needs to be some more consultation to ensure that any such measures do not overly censor legitimate, non-hateful speech from equity-seeking groups as well.

[Randall Garrison, NDP, Esquimalt—Saanich—Sooke, BC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Lena Metlege Diab]

Thank you very much, Mr. Garrison.

As the chair, I would like to thank the witnesses in all our panels, and particularly the ones before me here. This completes this particular study.

As an Atlantic Canadian and a Nova Scotian, I want to thank you, Imam Yousri, for shedding some light on Atlantic Canada, because I feel that a lot of times it's a bit overlooked by the bigger centres. Thank you for talking about the training you are conducting with police officers and everyone else, and, of course, the many interfaith activities you've been organizing over many years, which I personally have attended. We all know these interconnections are so important.

Colleagues, it's 1:28 p.m.

[Abdallah Yousri]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Lena Metlege Diab]

Thank you very much for attending today. As I said, this completes this particular study.

In due course, you will receive, from the clerk, the activities for Thursday.

Have a good day, and we'll see everybody on Thursday.

Thank you very much.

The meeting is adjourned.