Canada’s Senate rejects amendment to Bill C-9 that would ban ‘residential school denialism’
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Canadian senators voted 41–32 against adopting the amendment, although Bill C-9 would still remove religious speech protections and effectively criminalize quoting the Bible on homosexuality.
(LifeSiteNews) — Canadian senators voted down a recent proposed amendment to anti-Christian “hate speech” legislation, Bill C-9, which would have criminalized “residential school denialism.”
On Wednesday, senators voted 41–32 against adopting an amendment sponsored by Sen. Nancy Karetak-Lindell (Nunavut), who claimed that residential school attendees such as herself faced harms, as well as other changes to the bill. There were two abstentions.
Karetak-Lindell’s amendment would have changed Canada’s Criminal Code to say that any person who willfully promotes hatred against indigenous peoples by “condoning, denying or downplaying” alleged abuses linked to Canada’s residential school system outside of a private conversation could face prosecution or even a summary conviction, which could then lead to potential jail time.
The new amendment to Bill C-9 would have needed a House of Commons ratification if the Senate passed the bill as it stands in the third reading.
The news of the Senate’s vote-down of the amendment received praised from Conservative MP Andrew Lawton.
“The Senate has REJECTED the Senate Human Rights Committee’s amendments to Bill C-9, including the criminalization of residential school ‘downplaying’,” he wrote in an X post.
It is not yet clear what this means for Bill C-9, but the recent vote likely means that the bill will be further stalled from becoming law.
As reported by LifeSiteNews, Bill C-9, which is before Canada’s Senate, would criminalize religious expression and belief when quoting parts of the Bible, including passages about homosexuality and gender.
Bill C-9 has been blasted by constitutional experts as allowing empowered police and the government to go after those deemed to have violated a person’s “feelings” in a “hateful” way. The bill was introduced by Justice Minister Sean Fraser last year.
Specifically, Bill C-9 would remove Section 319(3)(b) of Canada’s Criminal Code. This section provides protection to good-faith expression of a person’s religious views, which are based on religious texts such as the Holy Bible.