I will start over from the beginning.
My colleague and I thank you for the opportunity to share the Ligue des droits et libertés’ perspective on Bill C‑9.
The Ligue des droits et libertés is an independent, non‑partisan organization founded in Quebec in 1963 to defend and promote human rights.
We recognize that the intention behind the bill is commendable. Hatred and intolerance toward groups that have historically been victims of discrimination are indeed a problem that must be addressed through various means. However, we do not believe that the provisions in Bill C‑9 offer effective tools to combat this problem. On the contrary, we believe that they represent an unjustifiable infringement on rights and freedoms, particularly the freedoms of expression, peaceful assembly and association. We therefore ask that you not adopt Bill C‑9 for the reasons detailed in our brief.
First, with regard to codifying a definition of hate in the Criminal Code, we believe that the wording chosen risks lowering the threshold carefully established by the Supreme Court.
Second, the proposed offence of wilfully promoting hatred by displaying certain symbols raises a number of issues for us. Our primary concern is the link to Canada’s list of terrorist entities. The Ligue considers that the current process for designating this list is opaque, undermines freedom of association and expression, and does not offer adequate procedural guarantees, while the consequences are extremely serious.
The Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism warns against the serious rights violations that can occur when such lists give rise to overly broad and general offences, particularly those related to the display of symbols. We consider that this applies accurately to this provision. Its wording, with its use of vague and imprecise terms, effectively leaves considerable room for arbitrariness in its application. This opens the door to arrest on the mere basis of displaying symbols that may be used, in particular, in the context of peaceful demonstrations.
Thus, it represents an unjustified violation of the freedoms of expression, peaceful assembly and association, and could also represent a violation of the right to equality on the grounds of national or ethnic origin or religion.
In our opinion, the defences provided for this new offence are more limited than those that already exist in the Criminal Code.