Mr. Speaker, I will be splitting my time with the member for Dorval—Lachine—LaSalle.
Every Canadian should be able to walk into their place of worship, send their children to school or gather in their community without fear. They should not have to look over their shoulder or wonder whether someone outside is shouting threats, blocking the entrance or intimidating them simply because of who they are, yet for too many Canadians today, that fear is real.
During the last week, I visited synagogue Beth Avraham Yoseph of Toronto, Temple Emanu-El and the Shaarei Shomayim congregation in Toronto. Those synagogues have been victim to shooting incidents. I also visited the Toronto Islamic Centre, which was recently in the news for receiving threats of a mass shooting. That is precisely why, in September, having seen the rise of hate crimes in our community, our government introduced Bill C-9, the combatting hate act. This legislation is about protecting Canadians and defending a basic principle that in Canada, every person should be able to gather, worship and live in their community without fear or intimidation.
The bill takes three clear steps to make that principle real. First, the bill would create two new offences to stop people from intimidating or blocking others from entering places used by their communities, such as places of worship or community centres. For example, it would make it illegal to block the entrance of a synagogue or mosque to stop people from going inside to pray. We had heard from many community groups that due to the rise in protests happening at places of worship, they needed the federal government to put forward legislation like this so that it could apply across the country. We have seen municipalities and some provinces recently step up, but they had asked the federal government to act. That is exactly what we are doing with this bill.
Second, it would create a stand-alone hate-motivated offence. Right now, if someone attacks a person because of their faith, identity or skin colour, they can be charged with assault, and the hate motive is only considered later at sentencing. This is a very important point. It has been brought up many times here today that this bill would not change anything. That is not true. Right now, the hate motivation would only be considered at sentencing. Under this bill, the hate motive would be recognized in the offence itself from the start, which would then have an impact on bail hearings and many other preliminary hearings.
Third, it would address the wilful promotion of hatred through the public display of hate or terrorist symbols. This is a very important point that many communities have brought to our attention. There have been, even on Parliament Hill, the display of terrorist symbols at Canada's Parliament.