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A rare cross-party coalition of Conservatives, the NDP, and Greens opposed the bill — but couldn’t stop the Liberals and Bloc Québécois from passing it 186–137.

Canada’s House of Commons passed Bill C-9 last month, removing a decades-old criminal defence for Canadians who express opinions grounded in religious texts. Canadian clergy, and faith communities are now exposed to prosecution under hate speech laws for quoting Scripture.

The Liberals and the Bloc Québécois voted 186–137 to pass the bill, dubbed the ‘Combatting Hate Act.’ A rare cross-party alliance including Conservatives, the NDP and Greens voted against it, but were unable to stop the legislation advancing to the Senate.

“With the passage of Bill C-9 in the House, Christians and pro-life advocates will almost certainly face an entirely new level of hostility,” said Campaign Life Coalition Campaigns Manager David Cooke, a Christian pastor. “The door swings open to actual persecution under a cloak of supposed legality.”

Controversy over the vote centred on the removal of a protection that has stood in Canada’s Criminal Code since 1970. That provision, under Section 319, barred conviction for hate speech “if, in good faith, the person 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.”

A Bloc Québécois amendment — accepted by the Liberals as the price of Bloc support — struck the clause from the law.

The Coalition Against the Bill

Opposition to the bill drew together an unusually broad coalition. Over 350 Muslim organisations, Orthodox Jewish community leaders, the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB), and Christian denominations across Canada issued statements urging the government to abandon the amendment.

A last-minute Conservative attempt to restore the religious text defence failed 188–125.

CCCB president Bishop Pierre Goudreault warned that eliminating the religious text defence “raises significant concerns,” and described it as “an essential safeguard to ensure that Canadians are not criminally prosecuted for their sincere, truth-seeking expression of beliefs made without animus and grounded in long-standing religious traditions.”

He also warned of a potential “chilling effect on religious expression, even if prosecutions remain unlikely in practice.”

Cardinal Frank Leo, Catholic Archbishop of Toronto, wrote separately that removing the safeguard “risks creating uncertainty for clergy, educators, and all people of faith who seek to pass on the teachings of the Church with charity and integrity.”

During earlier committee hearings, a former Justice Committee Chair had described certain passages from Leviticus, Deuteronomy, and Romans as “passages with clear hatred.”

The Canadian Centre for Christian Charity warned that the good faith defence existed precisely to prevent such characterisations from becoming the basis of criminal prosecution.

The government offered what it described as a reassurance: a ‘for greater certainty’ clause, which stated that nothing in the bill prohibits communicating a statement on a matter of public interest, including a religious statement, provided the person does not “wilfully promote hatred.”

Catholic Civil Rights League President Phil Horgan said the clause fell short, leaving open “the possibility of a charge if the Crown is of the view that a discussion of certain religious texts is not in the public interest.” Conservative MP Andrew Lawton called it “circular reasoning.”

What Comes Next

The bill now heads to Canada’s Senate, where CLC Director of Political Operations Jack Fonseca warned of an uphill battle: “Justin Trudeau has spent the past decade stacking [the Senate] with anti-Christian bigots.”

Fonseca called on “all people of goodwill to flood senators with phone calls, emails, social media comments, and, if possible, personal visits.” He added that for Christians, those efforts should be “reinforced spiritually through extra prayer and fasting.”

The Senate is expected to begin consideration of Bill C-9 on 14 April, the first sitting day after the Easter recess.

Cardinal Leo wrote to all Canadian senators on 27 March, urging them to review and amend the legislation.

Australia passed comparable laws earlier this year.

The Albanese government’s Combatting Antisemitism, Hate and Extremism Bill 2026 passed Parliament in January, drawing sharp criticism from faith communities for vague definitions of hatred and insufficient protections for religious speech.

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