(LifeSiteNews) — The Canadian Liberal federal government now claims it will add “clarifying language” to its so-called “hate speech” bill, which critics fear, if it becomes law, could open the door to the criminalization of religious expression and belief when quoting certain parts of the Bible.
During a February 23 House of Commons justice committee meeting, the Liberals said they will add a clause to Bill C-9 due to concerns that quoting certain parts of the Bible could be classified as “hate speech.”
The so-called “clarifying language” to be added to Bill C-9 is said to state that Canadians will not be banned from making statements “on a matter of public interest,” which would include religious speech. However, this would apply so long as people do not “willfully promote” hatred against certain groups, including homosexuals and gender confused people.
Conservative MPs have warned that Bill C-9 is a direct “attack” on religious freedom and would allow the “prosecution” of those who simply read certain passages of Scripture in “good faith.” They have been battling the bill in committee.
The federal government, under Prime Minister Mark Carney, recently passed an amendment to the bill removing a religious exception, prompting condemnation by the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, who penned an open letter blasting the proposed amendment and calling for its removal.
According to Liberal MP Patricia Lattanzio, the religious exemption created “interpretive ambiguity that allowed the provision to be invoked in ways Parliament never intended.”
She claimed that the government has “listened to” concerns of religious groups and that is “why we’re adding a clause for greater certainty.”
Lattanzio said that the clause will clarify that Bill C-9’s final wording would not impact “worship, sermons, prayer, religious education, peaceful debate, or even the good faith of reading and discussion of religious texts.”
As reported by LifeSiteNews, the Liberal Party’s Bill C-9, the Combating Hate Act, has been blasted by constitutional experts as allowing empowered police and the government to go after those it deems to have violated a person’s “feelings” in a “hateful” way. The bill was introduced by Justice Minister Sean Fraser last year.
Conservatives not buying Liberals ‘clause’ say Libs have not earned the ‘benefit of the doubt’
Despite the news of the clause to Bill C-9, Conservative MP Andrew Lawton said that while he is happy to see the Liberals recognize “that there is a problem with Bill C-9,” the new proposed clause, in the end, would not really “bolster any protections” for religious freedom or expression in Canada.
“It simply aims to say that ‘none of this was at issue in the first place’,” he said, adding, “For people that were raising concerns that Bill C-9 was eroding long-standing protections in criminal law, the government’s own admission right now about this amendment is that nothing is changing.”
Lawton said that when it comes to protecting Canadians’ rights via the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Carney Liberal government “has not earned or warranted the benefit of the doubt when it comes to matters of conscience, when it comes to matters of faith.”
Because of this, Lawton introduced a sub-amendment to Bill C-9, which would help remove any ambiguity and would exempt expression on matters of public interest from being considered as “willful promotion of hatred.”
The committee will meet again this week and at later dates.
In recent weeks, multiple Conservative pro-life MPs have been holding “Religious Freedom Town Halls” in an attempt to “stop” the Liberal federal government’s “attack on” religious rights in Canada.
Canada’s top pro-life advocacy group, Campaign Life Coalition (CLC), has warned that Bill C-9 would open the door to the “criminalization of religious expression and belief” when quoting the Bible.