BEN-AMI: Not all Canadian Jews support Bill C-9, the Combatting Hate Act

Joseph C. Ben-Ami is North American Director at the Bedein Center for Near East Policy Research and a former Director of Government Relations and Diplomatic Affairs for B'nai Brith Canada.As Bill C-9, the Combatting Hate Act, continues its journey toward becoming law in Canada, representatives of Canada’s Jewish community, such as CIJA and B’nai Brith, continue to voice their support. In doing so, they are failing to represent the best interests of the community.Targeting of Jewish-owned property, Jewish institutions, and Jews themselves has skyrocketed in recent years, as has the level of violence in these attacks. Antisemitic graffiti has been increasingly replaced by destruction of property, physical assaults, and even shootings, while angry mobs regularly march through predominantly Jewish neighbourhoods. C-9 was conceived — in part — to combat all this, but it does nothing of the sort.Let’s start with provisions prohibiting interference with access to houses of worship and religious services. This measure is popular among Jews who are regularly harassed by gangs outside synagogues. But such harassment is already illegal. Section 176 of the Criminal Code of Canada makes it an offence to “willfully disrupt or interrupt any gathering of people assembled for religious worship or, in some cases, for moral, social, or benevolent purposes.” In short, the actions proscribed in Bill C-9 are already prohibited by law. What’s missing is the will and, dare I say it, the courage to enforce those laws effectively. .The second and more controversial aspect of C-9 is its proposal to remove from the Criminal Code the so-called “good faith religious belief” defence (Section 319(2)) shielding clergy and lay preachers from charges of promoting hatred if they can show that they are, in good faith, basing their opinion on a religious subject or a belief in a religious text. Removing this defence potentially exposes members of the Jewish community to criminal prosecution under a variety of ever-shifting scenarios. Granted, such prosecutions are less likely given the need to obtain approval of the Attorney General of the province where the alleged offence took place, a safeguard eliminated — but later restored — in earlier drafts of the bill, but the risk remains, nonetheless. A legal safeguard that is subject to whatever direction the political winds of the day are blowing is, ultimately, no safeguard at all.For years, those who purport to speak on behalf of Canada’s Jewish Community have urged governments to pass legislation and adopt policies aimed at combatting antisemitism and, more broadly, fighting hate. And yet antisemitism is at an all-time high in Canada. Could it be that the strategy has been a colossal failure? The objective evidence would seem to indicate that it has. In spite of this, supporters of the strategy — both Jewish and non-Jewish — are determined to double down. C-9 is a manifestation of that determination, but like its predecessors, it is bound to fail because it is focused on controlling people’s emotions rather than their actions.That, in the final analysis, is the essential flaw — and danger — with combatting antisemitism with anti-hate legislation. It ignores time-tested laws against violence and inciting violence in favour of a much more dubious strategy of eradicating the emotions motivating those actions. To do this, the state must assume the power to decide what opinions are acceptable and punish vocal dissenters. The intent of such legislation may be entirely benevolent today, but what happens if these tools fall into the hands of an administration bent on suppressing Jewish or Christian teaching or practice? If this were not a valid concern, there would have been no need to insert a “good faith religious belief” defence into the criminal code in the first place … and there would have been no attempt to remove it as C-9 does.Controlling dissent is in the playbook of every totalitarian regime that has ever stained the pages of human history. The danger is not just theoretical either. Bad actors are already lining up to use anti-hate laws to suppress criticism of their own malevolent agenda. In the meantime, principled opposition and mounting resentment among decent people are pushing them, unwittingly, into the camp of the haters. Nobody can predict where the impact of this growing reactionary sentiment will lead.It’s time for leaders of the Jewish community to recognize that the strategy to combat antisemitism, as exemplified by their support for Bill C-9 and similar legislation, has failed to yield the desired results. Rather than doubling down on that strategy, what is urgently needed is a fundamental rethink of both its premises and their appropriate response. In the absence of such a rethink, the situation for Jews in Canada will continue to deteriorate.Joseph C. Ben-Ami is North American Director at the Bedein Center for Near East Policy Research and a former Director of Government Relations and Diplomatic Affairs for B'nai Brith Canada. He can be reached at joseph@josephbenami.com

BEN-AMI: Not all Canadian Jews support Bill C-9, the Combatting Hate Act

Related Stories

Statscan sold early hate crime report to Heritage for $72K as questions raised over omitted antisemitism data

PORRITT: Alberta’s Bill 25 isn’t removing politics from classrooms — it’s redefining them

MACLEOD: Four bills, one direction — how Ottawa is reshaping online freedom

Alberta moves to tighten vaping rules with new Bill 208 Vaping Reduction Act