Mr. Speaker, I will be splitting my time with the member for Burnaby Central.
I am very pleased to address the House today with respect to the combatting hate act, which is a law that would protect all Canadians better.
However, we need to talk about how we got to the combatting hate act. As a member of the Jewish community of Canada, I would have to start with the fact that since October 7, 2023, the Jewish community of Canada has faced an increasing barrage of hate. It goes up and it goes down, but the fact is that one group that represents 1.2% of the Canadian population faces 70% of religion-based hate crimes. It is a fact that this group has had its synagogues shot at three times in the last week. It is a fact that this group has had schools shot at. It is a fact that this group has had people standing outside its community centres, its schools and its synagogues, yelling vile chants, blaming the people in the building for what is happening across the world and telling the people in the building they should go back to Poland, when many of us have been in this country for six and seven generations or more. We have been here since the beginning of this country. We are as Canadian as anyone else, and the idea that we should be told to go back to somewhere else is beyond belief and beyond any reasonable comment.
Therefore, when we hear outside of our synagogues and schools chants that call for our destruction and call for our demise, that is not okay. When people say “globalize the intifada”, which is a call by Hamas to call for the destruction of the Jewish people, not only in Israel but across the world, that is not okay.
We got to this place in a way that was really, really bad. We saw hate in this country going way up, against Jews but against other groups as well. We have had shootings at a mosque in Quebec City. We have had a couple of Muslims killed in London, Ontario. We have had Christian churches burned across this country. We have had protests, unfair ones, outside of gurdwaras and temples. This law is meant to protect.
Last year, witnesses appeared before the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights. One of the committee members is the MP for Rivière‑du‑Nord. Conservative Party MPs were there too. We studied anti-Semitism in Canada to figure out what we should do to improve our laws and prevent hatred in our country. We made recommendations. I will read four of the committee's recommendations, which are in Bill C‑9.
Recommendation 10 is “That the federal Parliament consider creating a new intimidation offence under the Criminal Code to more clearly and directly protect entrance to and exit from community buildings such as schools, places of worship and community centers, in addition to existing offences that may apply in situations where such buildings are being blocked.”
Recommendation 15 is “That the Government of Canada consider removing the requirement to obtain the consent of the provincial Attorney General in order to prosecute certain hate crimes.” At the committee, we have agreed to drop that, but that was in the bill, and it was recommended by the committee.
Recommendation 16 is “That the Government of Canada take steps to ban the display of symbols of terrorist organizations that are listed under the Criminal Code.” That is in the bill.
Recommendation 17 is “That the Government of Canada work with police forces across the country to develop a standardized definition of 'hate crime'”. That standardized definition of hate is in the bill, and we have agreed with our colleagues in both other parties to amend the bill to ensure that the definition is in line with Keegstra.
As a result of those recommendations, Jewish organizations across the country, including the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, the Alliance of Canadians Combatting Antisemitism, B'nai Brith Canada, Canadian Women Against Antisemitism and the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center, have put out joint statements calling on the House and members of Parliament to work together to pass this bill.
I would also note that the issue is even more pressing, given the situation last weekend with the three shootings at synagogues in Toronto. There was a press conference on Sunday that was attended by representatives of both the Liberal Party and the Conservative Party, as well as members of the Ontario government, the Toronto city government and police forces of different jurisdictions. There was a commitment made by everybody to a non-partisan approach to tackling the horrible anti-Semitism being faced by Canadian Jews today.
Every Canadian has a right to feel safe and be safe in Canada, and that includes the Jewish community. I was hoping, and I very much had hoped, that type of press conference would convince my colleagues across the aisle to support the bill.
This bill is the number one thing that has been asked for by the Jewish community in order to confront anti-Semitism. It has all of the elements there, so it is a bit disappointing today to hear that my colleagues across the aisle are still not prepared to support the bill.
I want to say that the arguments they are making about religious freedom are not correct. I will read the words of Joseph Neuberger, who is a criminal lawyer with Neuberger and Partners LLP, the chair of the Canadian Jewish Law Association and also a Conservative Party supporter, as he declares in this article. He says:
Bill C-9 doesn't threaten religious freedom. It draws a necessary line.
Bill C-9 does not regulate belief, worship, sermons or religious teaching. It does not criminalize disagreement or political debate.
Claims that Bill C-9, The Combatting Hate Act, threatens religious freedoms in Canada are false. They are not supported by the bill itself, by the Constitution, or by decades of court decisions.
More than that, the claim that Bill C-9 undermines religious freedom is not a matter of interpretation or reasonable disagreement—it is misinformation. Religious freedom is explicitly protected by section 2(a) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and has been repeatedly affirmed by Canadian courts as a core constitutional guarantee.
Nothing in Bill C-9 amends, limits or conditions that protection. The bill does not interfere with worship, belief, religious teaching, sermons, or doctrine. To suggest otherwise is to assert a legal effect that simply does not exist.
I agree entirely with what Mr. Neuberger said. We are removing a defence that has not once been successfully used in Canadian history.
This defence is used only by people charged with promoting hatred. The threshold is very high. This is saying that someone who goes out in public to promote hatred against people in this country is charged at that point, and it is at that point that this defence becomes available. This defence can be invoked only after an individual has been charged with promoting hatred in Canada, and the threshold is very high.
I will end with the following: I am very much hoping that my colleagues opposite will reconsider. Right now at the justice committee, after hours and hours of Conservative filibustering, we are studying a subamendment by a Conservative member that would essentially mean that we could never have anyone charged with wilful promotion of hate in Canada. I think most of the members of the opposition party would be shocked if they saw what that amendment says. I really hope that people will reconsider and we can all pass the bill.