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Across Canada, but especially in large multicultural cities, 2025 has seen a troubling rise in vandalism targeting religious buildings. A synagogue in Victoria was defaced with a hateful message written in graffiti. A mosque in Montreal was similarly graffitied. And a Catholic church in Alberta was spray-painted and windows were smashed, with a repair cost estimated at $250,000. These are just a few examples of an increasingly common trend.  

Canada’s Criminal Code prohibits wilfully destroying or damaging property, rendering that property useless, or obstructing or interfering with the use of that property. All of this is known as the crime of “mischief”. The Criminal Code prescribes more severe penalties for mischief relating to religious property if the mischief is motivated by bias, prejudice, or hate. Bill C-255, recently introduced by MP Kelly Block, seeks to address the rise in mischief related to religious property. It does this in two ways.  

First, it would ensure that mischief against religious property is punished severely regardless of hatred or prejudice. The Criminal Code separates mischief relating to religious property, war memorials, cultural property, and computer data, but only requires the prosecution to demonstrate hate or bias when it comes to mischief in relation to religious property. So, under current law, if the vandal’s motive cannot be established, then only the regular, lower penalties for ordinary mischief can apply. Bill C-255 would change that, so that all the prosecution needs to establish is that the accused knew he was vandalizing religious property.  

Second, Bill C-255 would incorporate restorative justice principles by requiring perpetrators to help pay the cost of what was damaged. For each offence of mischief relating to religious property, the offender would have to compensate the victim at least $1,000. Presumably, it could be much more depending on the amount of damage done, which can also serve as a deterrent. 

ARPA Canada’s policy report on restorative justice addresses the need to incorporate restitution in the criminal law, especially where property has been taken, destroyed, or damaged. Restitution is a biblical principle, which helps offenders better understand what they have done and take responsibility for it. At the same time, it helps the victim to pay for whatever repairs are needed. In fact, the Old Testament legal code required wrongdoers to pay the cost of what they stole or damaged and more, to both restore what the victim lost and to punish and deter wrongdoing. Bill C-255’s proposed amendments to the Criminal Code rightly seek to apply the principle of restitution to Canada’s current law around mischief, while addressing a current problem in Canadian society. 

There is another bill before Parliament, the government’s Combatting Hate Act (Bill C-9), which takes a different approach to reforming Canada’s mischief laws. Bill C-9 would remove the existing mischief provisions related to religious property. In its place, the government would create: (a) a new offence of obstructing access to a religious building, and (b) a general hate crime offence that can be added on top of a regular mischief offence (where it can be proven beyond a reasonable doubt that the mischief was motivated by “hatred”, as defined in that bill). The government’s approach makes things far more complicated than Kelly Block’s bill. Also, the government’s approach in Bill C-9 does not incorporate the principle of restitution.  

Bill C-255 rightly seeks to prevent and justly punish mischief in relation to religious property and incorporates the important principle of restitution.