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Criminal hate speech laws are increasingly a topic of discussion in the House of Commons. What should the government’s response be to hatred?  

Right now, there are some laws against certain expressions of hatred. One example is section 319 of the Criminal Code, which prohibits wilful promotion of hatred against an identifiable group. Section 319 also prohibits wilfully promoting antisemitism “by condoning, denying or downplaying the Holocaust.” Legitimate defences include expressing a true statement, expressing a religious argument in good faith, making an argument to further the public interest, or trying to remove hateful speech. 

MP Leah Gazan would like to add a new offence to that section of the Criminal Code with her private member’s bill C-254, An Act to amend the Criminal Code (promotion of hatred against Indigenous people). Similar to the prohibition on promoting antisemitism, Bill C-254 would prohibit promoting hatred against Indigenous people by “condoning, denying, downplaying or justifying the Indian residential school system in Canada or by misrepresenting facts relating to it.” 

Upon introducing the bill, MP Gazan stated, “Without truth, there can be no reconciliation, yet today, denialism is spreading: twisting facts, denying genocide and reigniting harm. It is not only hurtful; it is dangerous. It endangers survivors, our families and our nations, who continue the work of truth-telling.”  

Canadians have different perspectives regarding residential schools. Some consider the residential school system to be a form of genocide, while others insist that is an inappropriate use of the term. Some scholars offer at least partial defences of the residential school system. Even some Indigenous people speak positively of their experience in the residential school system.  

Even if police, prosecutors, and judges can reliably determine whether someone is “condoning, denying, downplaying, or justifying the Indian residential school system,” is criminalizing that person’s speech the most fair and effective way to counter it? Even if the government does have a legitimate role in regulating “hate speech” or certain forms of group libel, proposals like this stray too far into allowing the government to be the arbiter of truth. 

Canadians should be permitted to disagree on topics like residential schools, even if they are objectively wrong. One of the purposes of free speech is to allow people to have lively debates, to challenge and correct each other, so that the truth may become clear. Of course, Canadians, and especially Christians, should seek to understand and present the truth on issues such as residential schools. But disputing facts or perspectives does not silence the truth and is not the same as promoting hatred. 

Of course, the proposed legislation in this case would prohibit wilfully promoting hatred by making various comments about the residential school system. That is, it would not prohibit sharing an opinion or fact or misinformation, per se.  

Canadian courts understand “hatred” in the context of the Criminal Code to mean an intense and extreme emotion that is clearly associated with vilification and detestation. However, the government’s proposed Combatting Hate Act threatens to lower that bar. As particular perspectives are condemned as hateful in public rhetoric, we are concerned about Parliament passing laws that will make it easier to prohibit those perspectives.  

Proposals like Bill C-254 also show favouritism to specific groups or causes. Wilful promotion of hatred against Indigenous persons (or persons of any ethnicity, religion, etc.) is already prohibited in the Criminal Code. Why explicitly criminalize downplaying the experience of Indigenous people in residential schools but not the Japanese during WWII internment? Or why not prohibit denying or downplaying various crimes and persecutions against identifiable groups all over the world?  

Finally, as ARPA has commented elsewhere, Christians should condemn hateful thoughts, words, and gestures. After all, I am “not to belittle, hate, insult, or kill my neighbor… and I am not to be party to this in others” (Heidelberg Catechism, Q&A 105). Hatred is a real sin. But government and law enforcement cannot discern the degree of hatred in one’s heart and cannot regulate the heart.