The Religious Exception for Hate Propaganda has Lasted Long Enough

The original French version of this article appeared in La Presse on 3^rd December 2024 under the title Discours haineux et exception religieuse : Une position intenable qui a assez duré. It is also published on our French-language website under the title L’exception religieuse en matière de discours haineux a assez duré.

Nadia El-Mabrouk, Etienne-Alexis Boucher, David Rand, Marie-Claude Girard, François Dugré, Lyne Jubinville, Raphaël Guérard and Lucie Jobin, members of Alliance for Secularism (Rassemblement pour la laïcité, RPL)

Publication Date: 2024-12-03

We fully support the request made by Quebec Justice Minister Simon Jolin-Barrette to his federal counterpart Arif Virani to repeal the religious exception for hate propaganda in the Criminal Code. We are referring to paragraphs 319(3)(b) and 319(3.1)(b) which stipulate that no one can be found guilty of wilfully promoting hatred against an identifiable group if they have “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 special protection granted to hateful religious speech is not only unjustifiable in a State governed by the rule of law, but it is also dangerous. It is very likely that it was this exception in the Criminal Code that guided the decision by the DPCP (Directeur des poursuites criminelles et pénales) to abandon the prosecution of Adil Charkaoui for having, during a demonstration in Montreal, prayed to Allah to “identify and exterminate” all the “enemies of the people of Gaza.” In the extremely tense context of the war between Israel and Hamas, it is particularly important to have the tools necessary to suppress any attempt to import such hatred here in Quebec and Canada, and firstly, not to give agitators the possibility of avoiding prosecution under the cover of their religion.

This is not the first time that civil society has expressed its opposition to this unfair section of the Criminal Code, far from it. Already in 2017-2018, more than 1,500 people called for the repeal of this religious exception by filing a petition to the House of Commons. The government’s response was inadequate, with the Minister of Justice citing an earlier version of the paragraph, thus allowing her to dodge the issue.

Indeed, far from being repealed, the religious exemption was strengthened in 2003 by Bill C-250, which added protection against speech based on a religious text. Aside from this amendment, that draft legislation had only one other provision: adding sexual orientation to the list of identifiable groups protected against hate propaganda. Can this be a simple coincidence? How can we not see here a desire to calm the religious concerns of certain members of Parliament, dissatisfied with the new protection granted to sexual orientation? We cannot imagine a less legitimate or more cynical motive than that!

It should be noted that the request made by Minister Simon Jolin-Barrette echoes the bill tabled by the Bloc Québécois on this same issue in the House of Commons in November 2023, then re-tabled in February 2024, but which has still not been selected for review. This silence on the part of federally elected officials is troubling. Are they unable to recognize the limits of religious freedom? Such freedom should not, under any circumstances, be used to exempt speech that foments hatred or genocide. This is a position that should nevertheless be a consensus.

The religious exception for hate speech has gone on for long enough and it is high time to get rid of it. This section of the Criminal Code has no rational justification, is irreconcilable with a democratic and secular society based on the rule of law, and represents an untenable position for a government that claims to make the fight against hate speech a priority.