John Carpay, B.A., LL.B., is president of the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms, which has presented its Submission on Bill C-9 to the House of Commons.Reader beware: the scriptures in the paragraph below might become criminal hate speech if Parliament passes Bill C-9, the Combatting Hate Act.The Torah states in Leviticus 20:13: “If a man has sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They are to be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads.” St. Paul in his first letter to Timothy writes, “We also know that the law is made not for the righteous but for lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious, …for the sexually immoral, for those practicing homosexuality, for slave traders and liars and perjurers — and for whatever else is contrary to the sound doctrine …” The Catechism of the Catholic Church (2357) states: “Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity, tradition has always declared that ‘homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered.’ They are contrary to the natural law.” The Qur’an (7:80-81) states, “And remember when Lot scolded the men of his people, saying, ‘Do you commit a shameful deed that no man has ever done before? You lust after men instead of women! You are certainly transgressors.’”.WIECHNIK: Steel worries and carbon taxes could sink Alberta's pipeline dream.When first introduced in September, Bill C-9 was already bad news for free expression. It would remove the current review process whereby the Attorney General must consent to prosecutions for hate propaganda offences. By leaving prosecutions to the unchecked discretion of local police and local prosecutors, Bill C-9 will result in more Canadians being prosecuted over what they say on social media and elsewhere.In the United Kingdom, thousands of people are charged criminally each year, based on what they say on social media, and people are literally jailed for their speech. Bill C-9 would take Canada in that same direction..Bill C-9 also creates a new hate crime offence that escalates — and often doubles — the maximum penalties which can be imposed when a judge feels that a crime was motivated by “hate.” Bill C-9 fails to bring clarity to what the emotion of “hate” means. Regardless of how courts or legislatures may seek to define hate, the determination of what is “hateful” will always depend ultimately on the personal feelings and subjective prejudices of the policeman, prosecutor, and judge.Bad as it already was, Bill C-9 has now become worse, with the minority Liberals striking a new deal with the Bloc Quebecois to remove one of the defences that has always been available to Canadians who are criminally charged with hate speech..STIRLING: Net zero or net lies? Inside the climate industry’s war on free speech.Section 319(2) of the Criminal Code prohibits communicating statements, other than in private conversation, that willfully promote hatred against any identifiable group. The term identifiable group means any section of the public distinguished by colour, race, religion, national or ethnic origin, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or mental or physical disability.In 1990, the Supreme Court of Canada came close to striking down this Criminal Code section as an unjustified violation of free expression. In a 4:3 ruling in R. v. Keegstra, the Court’s majority upheld this Criminal Code provision in part because of the defences that are available to an accused person. A Canadian facing a hate speech prosecution can defend herself by establishing that the statements she communicated were true, or if in good faith she expressed or attempted to establish by an argument an opinion on a religious subject or an opinion based on a belief in a religious text..This “religious text” defence has never been a blank cheque or free pass to invoke religion when spewing hate. Courts have rejected this defence when the accused person mixed hatred with religious statements. Violence and calls to violence have never been protected as free expression. There is therefore no practical reason for removing this defence from the Criminal Code, other than opening the door to prosecuting Canadians who publicly proclaim and teach what their scriptures say about human sexuality.Minister of Canadian Identity and Culture Marc Miller has himself stated that scripture passages like the ones above (in this column) are hate speech. In spite of this clear and public admission from a federal cabinet minister, rest assured that Liberal and Bloc MPs will promise forcefully and repeatedly that Bill C-9 will never — ever! — be used to prosecute priests, pastors, rabbis, imams, and other religious leaders over publicly teaching what their faiths say about human sexuality..EDITORIAL: The federalists unwittingly triggered an independence referendum. They may not like the question it asks.To believe these promises, one would need to be extremely naïve. In 2025, Canadians are routinely silenced, deplatformed, excluded, threatened, cancelled, ostracized, and prosecuted over expressing opinions that are disliked by woke elites. If a Canadian nurse can be found guilty of unprofessional conduct for having stated publicly that there are only two sexes, do not be surprised, if Bill C-9 passes, to see pastors arrested and prosecuted for teaching what their scriptures say.John Carpay, B.A., LL.B., is president of the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms, which has presented its Submission on Bill C-9 to the House of Commons.
