Justice committee  I combed through the very lengthy bill. There probably are a number of offences that are perfectly fine to hybridize, but there are some where it is just inappropriate, and it sends a very, very negative message.

Justice committee  That was certainly not our intention. As I said, our interest in that provision is that it enables us to look at places where individuals are held and exploited, quite often trafficked. The definition is really quite vague. We can accomplish a lot by bringing some precision to th

Justice committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair and members of the committee, for the opportunity to participate in this study. The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada is the national association of evangelical Christians in Canada. Our affiliates include 45 denominations, more than 65 ministry organizations

Canadian Heritage committee  I think you would be challenged to come up with a tool kit that could possibly identify all racial and religious biases, but I like the idea of being very intentional about ensuring that, as legislators, as government, as policy-makers, you're aware of your biases. We talk about

Canadian Heritage committee  I think part of what happened from the get-go was that there was some very irresponsible reporting on the motion, such as mis-characterizing what it was, what it could do, and what it set out to do, so we actually spent a great deal of time and energy educating and informing our

Canadian Heritage committee  Our first recommendation for a whole-of-government approach is to take religious differences seriously. There are a number of ways to do this. Study systemic racism and religious discrimination independently, and study their intersectionality. Race, religion, and culture are dis

Justice committee  Yes.

Justice committee  I can't answer that with any official.... My sense is that in all likelihood it is very under-reported within the evangelical community, and we've talked about this a bit in terms of hate crimes reporting generally. Bruce was just saying that we turn the other cheek. This is what

Justice committee  Very briefly, I think it's both, and I agree with everything Mike has said. The awareness has been varied among religious communities, but I can tell you that I have been dialoguing and working with a large number of faith groups across Canada. The awareness is there now, if it w

Justice committee  Again, I think this gets back to the question of wilfully, but if the motivation is based.... I don't know that we would consider that a religious service per se. Sometimes in a church setting it's a very sacred thing and someone coming in there and disrupting a service in a chu

Justice committee  Section 176 is not redundant. The existing case law pertaining to this section shows us that the nature of the disruption matters. Paragraph 175(1)(a), on causing a disturbance, for example, requires loud or offensive noises, screaming, shouting, swearing, or obscene language, bu

Justice committee  We didn't necessarily pick six months. That was just one of the time frames that was being discussed. I think we need to remember that in the Carter decision some of the statements made included the words “vague”, “grievous”, “irremediable”, and those kinds of things. The justic

Justice committee  I've heard different ideas of what this could look like. Yesterday you heard from Mr. Bach about capacity and consent boards. This is a body that makes final approval on certain kinds of decisions, so it could be made up of lawyers, medical professionals, and so on. I don't nece

Justice committee  You've heard testimony that for the capacity and consent boards, it's a quick turnaround. It can be a 24-hour period where a decision is reached and they get the approval to go ahead. It doesn't have to be something that creates a long delay. Again, I'm not a lawyer, but I imagin

Justice committee  There are a lot reasons that it's a good idea. The Supreme Court felt it was a good idea, so it put the system in place and it has been working fairly efficiently. As the defence lawyers were speaking, I was thinking that this would address many of their concerns, because then th