Bloc Quebecois MP Rheal Fortin, who proposed the change to the bill, argued at committee that the exemption enables people to say hateful things that would otherwise be forbidden under the Criminal Code if they are based on a religious text.Justin Tang/The Canadian Press
MPs voted to remove a long-standing religious exemption to Canada’s hate-speech laws Tuesday after heated exchanges in the Commons and lobbying by religious groups to retain it.
In a fiery Commons committee meeting, Liberal MPs supported an amendment to a bill tabled by the Bloc Québécois to remove the exemption, which has long been part of the country’s Criminal Code.
The exemption to the Criminal Code allows a person who quotes from a religious text to escape prosecution for hate speech. The Bloc has argued for years that it can be used as cover for promoting homophobia, racial abuse and antisemitism.
Bloc justice critic Rhéal Fortin, who proposed the change to the bill, argued at committee that the exemption enables people to say hateful things that would otherwise be forbidden under the Criminal Code if they are based on a religious text.
“If Bill C-9 is to truly fight hate crime, we have to remove this religious exemption,” he said.
Conservatives on the Commons justice committee vehemently opposed the move, saying they had been inundated with expressions of concern from religious leaders fearing the change would limit religious freedom.
One of the Conservatives, Larry Brock, attempted to delay consideration of the amendments, saying he wanted to hear more witnesses. He said removing the religious exemption was a “direct attack on freedom of religion.”
Another Conservative, Andrew Lawton, also spoke against the amendment, saying a deal had been struck between the Liberals and the Bloc to vote it through.
Justice Minister Sean Fraser in the House of Commons on Nov. 7, 2025.Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press
Last week, Bloc Leader Yves-François Blanchet threatened to withdraw support for the government’s flagship anti-hate bill unless the Liberals voted for the change.
Justice Minister Sean Fraser argued earlier on Tuesday that the Bloc’s proposed change to the Criminal Code would not pose a threat to religious freedom or the right to quote from religious texts.
At a press conference, he said it would “in no way, shape or form, prevent a religious leader from reading their religious texts, it will not criminalize faith and to suggest otherwise, in my view, is a perversion of the values that the major religions in this country and around the world stand for.”
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He added in a statement that it would not affect existing protections in the Constitution for freedom of religion and freedom of expression.
The amendment to Bill C-9 was scheduled to be voted on last week. But the meeting of the Commons justice committee where it was due to be considered was abruptly cancelled.
At a hastily arranged news conference last week, Mr. Fortin said Mr. Fraser had personally assured him that the Liberals would support his amendment in committee.
But at the same conference, Mr. Blanchet suggested Mr. Fraser may be considering reneging on his pledge. The Bloc Leader warned the government that it would pay a political price if it fails to support his party’s amendment, as he said it had pledged to do.
“It is absolutely clear that without the removal of the religious exemption from the Criminal Code, there is no way that the Bloc Québécois will look at this bill any more,” Mr. Blanchet told reporters.
Religious groups have been contacting MPs to express apprehension about the proposed amendment.
Andrew Bennett, from the Christian policy think tank Cardus, said the amendment “poses a threat to religious freedom, but not because removing exemptions from hate-speech laws would effectively ‘ban the Bible,’ as some critics have claimed.”
“It’s subtler than that, though no less serious. Those exemptions are what keep the government in its place. Without them, government, which neither understands religion nor sacred texts like the Bible, can end up being the ultimate arbiter of religious speech, deciding on whether it is acceptable to express it,” he said in an e-mail. “Religious teaching and worship, whether public or private, must remain beyond the reach of government.”
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The anti-hate bill would make it a crime, punishable by up to 10 years in prison, to obstruct someone from accessing a place of worship or other sites where Jews, Muslims and other identifiable groups gather, including by blocking doors, driveways and roads.
Bill C-9 would also criminalize the willful promotion of hatred toward religious and ethnic groups by publicly displaying terror or hate symbols. The bill as presented included the swastika and symbols of designated terror groups – including those of the Tamil Tigers, Islamic State, Hamas and Hezbollah.
Liberal MP Anthony Housefather has expressed concern that the bill does not go far enough to stop the glorification of listed terror groups in Canada. He read out to the committee a letter Mr. Fraser had written to him saying, “I agree with you that the status quo is not good enough.” The minister said he would examine the current law in detail.
MPs voted to remove a reference to the swastika as a symbol of hate from the bill. Mr. Fortin argued that the symbol displayed by the Nazis is also a traditional symbol for Buddhists, Hindus and Jainists, and outlawing it could lead to them unjustly being accused of a criminal offence.
Mr. Housefather tabled an amendment to remove the word swastika from the English version of the bill, which the committee supported. The bill still includes a reference to the symbol under its other name, the Nazi hakenkreuz.