Justice committee  I would agree. Part of the challenge as well is that when we start to parse people from places, because people's identities are not so easily divided, right? We're talking about identity-based crimes, so it doesn't necessarily matter where they happen. The impact they have, the t

Justice committee  Absolutely. It should be in the definition, so that someone would not have to wonder if that were covered as a social space and somebody would not have to look and say, “That's a commercial space. That doesn't apply.”

Justice committee  I would hate to see something like that happen or be said to a community that is suffering and hurting right now. We know that those kinds of spaces are the ones most likely to be targeted and attacked.

Justice committee  I can't personally speak for law enforcement, but it would be another useful tool. It sends another very powerful message. I think these kinds of changes are only as good as the education that's provided afterwards—the implementation. So there is the question of training and awar

Justice committee  Funding is always helpful. The primary goal of a lot of funding is the education about and the implementation of government legislation. As we mentioned, it's one thing to pass the legislation, but it's another thing to ensure that it's for effective and intended uses and that pe

Justice committee  Absolutely. I believe it has been said that it should parallel Bill C-16. As I mentioned, many people are targeted because of their gender expression, because they're not performing what it means to be societally acceptable as being a male or female. Or, what happens when you're

Justice committee  I would certainly support that. I give the example of someone putting a rainbow flag in their window or in their front yard, and then being targeted because they have signalled their support for the LGBTQ community or that they identify as a member of the LGBTQ community. And tha

Justice committee  There have been lots of comments on speech, certainly, and it's not an easy issue to resolve, but I do think we have case law that's started to make those definitions. Here we're talking about aspects of graffiti. We're talking about violence enacted on spaces. We're talking ab

Justice committee  I think you're right. This inevitably happens with legislation that is amended over time: sections don't necessarily read together and they're difficult to find. If judges are having a hard time finding various sections that are current or no longer on the books, I'm not sure how

Justice committee  I know there is support. It's just a matter of making this a priority, and when we see the state of the world before us, I do believe that now is the time for us to do this in this country. This is a serious discussion that we should be having. How do we consolidate our approach

Justice committee  I do. I think it's important for the LGBTQ community. For those commercial spaces, with legislation like this, if we were to have a tragedy like what happened with the Pulse nightclub, we'd be wondering if this applies or not. We can learn the lessons of history and move forward

Justice committee  We know that hate is a learned value. Right? The reality is that the large majority of hate crimes are committed by youth against youth. These are crimes under the age of 25. If hate is a learned value, the real question comes down to what we are teaching our children. Where are

Justice committee  Thank you for the question. I think at its face, it says that you matter, you exist. When we name people, we give them personhood. We recognize that they have rights, that they're full, contributing, and valued members of our society. We also recognize as a government that this i

Justice committee  Thank you.

Justice committee  Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today. And to our colleagues who presented before, it's great to see the solidarity between communities talking about such an important issue of hate and bias in our country. I believe that the proposed amendments to Bill C-305 a