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Quebec politicians call for the end of protecting hate speech delivered under the guise of religion
Legal loopholes are protecting behaviours and speech that lead to discrimination and violence, says Quebec Justice Minister Simon Jolin-Barrette, who wants the religious exceptions for hate speech removed from Canada’s Criminal Code.
In a Nov. 27 letter to his federal and provincial counterparts, obtained by The CJN, he asked federal Justice Minister Arif Virani to criminalize hate speech delivered under the guise of faith, after criticizing the inaction of federal lawmakers following recurring outbursts in Montreal—which, he says, contributes to a toxic climate.
At issue are two lines in section 319, 3b and 3.1b, which state, “No person shall be convicted of an offence… if, in good faith, they 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.”
The exception provides a legal shield for radical extremists to encourage hatred and intolerance towards ethnic and religious groups, Jolin-Barrette wrote, or to disseminate racist, misogynistic or homophobic messages, “undermining our governments’ efforts towards peaceful co-existence.”
Jolin-Barrette insists the move is urgent and would not unjustifiably impede freedom of expression and the ability of individuals to express their religious beliefs. “On the contrary, this withdrawal would protect the rights and dignity of all Quebecers and Canadians, in accordance with the fundamental values of respect and inclusion that must guide us.”
One case that prompted the drive to amend the Code was Montreal imam Adil Charkaoui’s infamous speech at a demonstration in downtown Montreal three weeks after the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks on Israel. In front of thousands of supporters, he called on God to “kill the enemies of the people of Gaza and to spare none of them” and “take care” of “Zionist aggressors.”
That and other incidents since have raised awareness among many Canadians of the existence of the Criminal Code religious exception and raised in stark relief the barriers to prosecuting such behaviour, evidenced by Quebec prosecutors deciding not to prosecute Charkaoui for lack of confidence in a conviction beyond reasonable doubt.
A few weeks after that call to arms, Bloc Québécois leader Yves-François Blanchet tabled Bill C-367, An Act to amend the Criminal Code (promotion of hatred or antisemitism), which would simply repeal the clauses, but has been stalled since first reading. The uncertainty regarding the next parliamentary session amid the current turmoil of the Trudeau government and the legislative calendar makes the bill’s progress even more uncertain.
According to a February 2024 Léger poll of 1,529 Canadian adults, 66 percent of Canadians support Blanchet’s bill, while 75 percent of Quebecers are in favour, the highest number in Canada. The largest number of those opposed to the bill were in Alberta and Atlantic Canada, with 43 percent and 42 percent, respectively. Slightly more than a quarter (26 percent) of Canadians reported not being aware that the Criminal Code contains a section on hate speech, with Quebecers the most likely to not be aware (34 percent).
In Quebec, where rejection of religious dogma and exceptionalism has grown for decades, “secularism of the state presupposes equal treatment of citizens before the law, guaranteeing that it applies to all regardless of religious convictions,” Jolin-Barrette wrote on social media, adding the exception is incompatible “with the secularism and social values of the Quebec nation…. The federal government must not wait for further outbursts, it must amend the Criminal Code.”
Quebec’s opposition Liberals support its removal and his motion, which was adopted unanimously by Quebec’s National Assembly. The Quebec Conservative Party’s spokesman, Cedric Lapointe, says the growing demand to remove the protections is “excellent news—no one should be allowed to threaten or incite violence, regardless of their religious beliefs.… Adil Charkaoui should be charged with hate speech and imprisoned for publicly stating that all Israelis should be eliminated.”
The view of B’nai Brith Canada is that recent incidents demonstrate the exemption has been abused and allowed hate-mongers to escape prosecution for inflicting substantial harms which the wilful promotion of hatred provision was created to prevent. “By limiting the breadth of the conduct which is considered exempt under Section 319(3)(b), Parliament should ensure that the exemption is not being used as a way to circumvent prosecution.”
To see or hear peaceful demonstrations is always welcome, Blanchet told reporters on Dec. 4. “It’s normal, it’s part of democracy. It’s even more normal on university campuses. But we must not give in to hate speech or invitations to violence.” He pushed Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on the issue earlier that day in Parliament, stating, “I get the impression that the prime minister does not appreciate how serious the situation is…. The Jewish community in Canada and Quebec is afraid. Here and in Quebec, because of the federal government, people can incite violence against Jews with impunity.”
He says the “vast majority of Quebecers and the vast majority of Canadians” want the change. “There’s no strategic calculation, there’s no negotiation, we all want something done.”
When pressed by Blanchet, Trudeau responded that Conservative filibustering—with Bloc support—precluded meaningful debate or progress on many files, but then relented, stating the government is “very open to discussing, debating and moving forward on this issue. We recognize that there is no simple or easy solution to this.” Trudeau reiterated that Blanchet’s bill is only a partial solution, “but we must continue to work together. That is why we introduced Bill C‑63, which addresses online hate, protects our children and will be part of the solutions across the country to combat hate and discrimination, especially online.”
The government’s Bill 63 (the Online Harms Act), among other things, amends the Criminal Code with definitions of hate and other provisions, as well as the Canadian Human Rights Act, while putting much of the onus on digital platforms to assume responsibility for harmful content.
Blanchet told reporters the bill is very complex and he’s uncertain if his proposal should be folded into it. “There are elements where there is criminalization on the basis of intent that is very difficult to demonstrate, with very serious penalties that cannot be adopted as such. So we can’t say we’re going to put the law on religious exception inside that.” He would prefer, he says, to just remove the exception from the Criminal Code.
In a Dec. 3 open letter, Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs vice-presidents Eta Yudin and Richard Marceau said the “good faith” proviso is problematic. “Can people spread hatred and incite violence while acting in good faith?” they asked. “Can one freely wish for the annihilation of a group while pleading that it was a simple prayer?” There should be a logical answer, they say, but “that is not how it works in Canada.”
“How can we imagine that the calls for murder that we have been hearing constantly in our ‘streets of peace’ for weeks are declarations of ‘good faith’?”
The exemption, they say, “often acts more as a deterrent to prosecution than anything else,” adding Canada’s image and the security of its citizens can be “undermined by this wait-and-see attitude.” Demonstrations in Montreal over the last 14 months have seen some promote “under the cover of ‘preaching’, calls for the death of ‘Zionists’, invocations of jihad and declarations of rallying to recognized terrorist organizations,” says the CIJA statement. “Where is the good faith here?”
The drive to amend the law is happening against the backdrop of a year of unprecedented hate expressed in cities across the country. Jews are the single most targeted group for hate crimes by a wide margin, especially after Oct. 7, 2023, Montreal police have reported.
According to the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM), 310 hate crimes and incidents were recorded against the Jewish (230) and Arab-Muslim (80) communities, and 42 individuals have been charged with hate crimes since Oct. 7, 2023. The statistics follow a national trend. According to Statistics Canada, police-reported crimes against Jews across Canada numbered 900 in 2023, a 71-percent increase from 2022.
The most frequently reported hate crimes in Canada were directed against Jews, who, along with LGBTQIA2+ and Black Canadians, account for 19, 18 and 16 percent of hate crimes, respectively.
Abolition of the religious exemption is a key CIJA recommendation to better combat hate speech and speech glorifying terror, spokesman Julien Corona told The CJN. “This abolition must ensure that they are fully sanctioned. We cannot afford to tolerate words that promote the explosion of antisemitism and hatred in what are supposed to be our ‘streets of peace’.” Jolin-Barrette is showing leadership on this issue with this letter, says Corona. “It’s high time the federal government followed through.”
Mount Royal MP Anthony Housefather has supported removing the religious exemption for hate speech for years, telling The CJN, “I continue to support it, and I support the private member’s bill that has been put forward to do this.” The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops had no comment about Blanchet’s bill, but said members of its Permanent Council “are aware of the matter and are monitoring it closely.”
While Trudeau affirmed last year that Canada already has very strict rules against incitement to hatred, genocide and violence, CIJA posted on social media that the last 14 months in Montreal proves that is not the case.
“Condemnations are no longer enough. We need action.”
The post Quebec politicians call for the end of protecting hate speech delivered under the guise of religion appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.
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As Gaza War Continues, Hamas Calls for Global Protests While Israel Marks Breakthroughs in Medical Innovation
A pro-Hamas march in London, United Kingdom, Feb. 17, 2024. Photo: Chrissa Giannakoudi via Reuters Connect
As the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas calls for global protests amid stalled Gaza ceasefire talks, Israel has broken new ground despite the ongoing conflict, achieving a major medical breakthrough in synthetic human kidney development.
The contrast illustrates a stark contrast between the priorities of Hamas, an international designated terrorist group that has ruled Gaza for nearly two decades, and Israel, the lone democracy in the Middle East that has long been a leader in tech and medical innovation.
On Wednesday, Hamas urged worldwide protests in support of Palestinians, calling on the international community “to denounce Israel’s genocidal war and starvation policy in Gaza.”
“We call for continuing and escalating the popular pressure in all cities and squares on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday … through rallies, demonstrations and sit-ins outside the embassies of the Israeli regime and its allies, particularly in the US,” the statement read.
The Palestinian terrorist group also called to expose what it described as “the terrorism of the Zio-Nazi occupation against defenseless civilians.”
Hamas’s latest move against Israel comes amid stalled indirect negotiations over a proposed 60-day ceasefire and hostage release deal, which collapsed last month after the group vowed it would not disarm unless an independent Palestinian state is established — rejecting a key Israeli demand to end the war in Gaza.
In its statement, Hamas demanded the opening of all border crossings to allow immediate aid into the war-torn enclave and urged a global condemnation of “the international community’s inaction on the Israeli crimes.”
Amid mounting international pressure to address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, Israel announced new measures to facilitate the delivery of aid, including temporary pauses in fighting in certain areas and the creation of protected routes for aid convoys.
Israeli officials have previously accused Hamas of diverting aid for terrorist activities and selling supplies at inflated prices to civilians, while also blaming the United Nations and other foreign organizations for enabling this diversion.
Hamas’s statement also emphasized that the “global resistance movement must continue until Israeli aggression on Gaza ends and the siege on the coastal strip is lifted.”
Meanwhile, as Israel faces escalating hostilities and the heavy toll of war, the Jewish state continues to push the boundaries of innovation and resilience, achieving new medical breakthroughs while confronting ongoing challenges.
In a major medical breakthrough, scientists at Sheba Medical Center and Tel Aviv University have successfully grown a synthetic 3D miniature human kidney in a lab using specialized stem cells derived from kidney tissue — one of the most promising advances in regenerative medicine.
Dr. Dror Harats, chairman of Sheba’s Research Authority, described this achievement as a reflection of Israel’s leading role in global medical innovation.
“Despite growing efforts to isolate Israel from international science, breakthroughs like this prove our impact is both lasting and essential,” he said.
In a landmark study, a team from Sheba’s Safra Children’s Hospital and Tel Aviv University’s Sagol Center for Regenerative Medicine created synthetic kidney organs that matured and remained stable for 34 weeks — the longest-lasting and most refined kidney organoids developed to date.
Nearly a decade ago, the research team became the first to successfully isolate human kidney tissue stem cells — the cells responsible for the organ’s development and growth.
Previous attempts to grow kidneys in a lab using general-purpose stem cells were short-lived, typically lasting only a few weeks and often producing unwanted cell types that compromised research accuracy.
However, this Israeli research team used stem cells taken directly from kidney tissue — cells that naturally develop into kidney parts — allowing them to create a much purer and more stable model with key features found in real kidneys.
This medical breakthrough could have far-reaching implications, redefining the current understanding of kidney diseases and advancing the development of innovative treatments.
Researchers believe the model could help assess how medications impact fetal kidneys during pregnancy and move science closer to repairing or replacing damaged kidney tissue with lab-grown cells.
The discovery came days after researchers from Hebrew University of Jerusalem and international partners discovered a way to boost the immune system’s cancer-fighting ability by reprogramming how T cells, which are white blood cells critical to the immune system, produce energy.
The researchers explained in a study published in the peer-reviewed Nature Communications that disabling a protein known as Ant2 in T cells greatly enhances their effectiveness against tumors.
“By disabling Ant2, we triggered a complete shift in how T cells produce and use energy,” Prof. Michael Berger of Hebrew University’s Faculty of Medicine, who co-led the study with doctorate student Omri Yosef, told the Tazpit Press Service. “This reprogramming made them significantly better at recognizing and killing cancer cells.”
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Netherlands to Push EU to Suspend Israel Trade Deal but Won’t Recognize Palestinian State ‘At This Time’
Netherlands Foreign Affairs Minister Caspar Veldkamp addresses a press conference, in New Delhi on April 1, 2025. Photo: ANI Photo/Sanjay Sharma via Reuters Connect
The Netherlands is spearheading efforts to suspend the European Union-Israel trade agreement amid rising EU criticism of Israel’s actions in Gaza, while simultaneously refusing to recognize a Palestinian state, contrasting with other member states as international pressure mounts.
On Thursday, Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp announced that the Netherlands will push the EU to suspend the trade component of the EU-Israel Association Agreement — a pact governing the EU’s political and economic ties with the Jewish state.
This latest anti-Israel initiative follows a recent EU-commissioned report accusing Israel of committing “indiscriminate attacks … starvation … torture … [and] apartheid” against Palestinians in Gaza during its military campaign against Hamas, an internationally designated terrorist group.
Following calls from a majority of EU member states for a formal investigation, this report built on Belgium’s recent decision to review Israel’s compliance with the trade agreement, a process initiated by the Netherlands and led by EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas.
According to the report, “there are indications that Israel would be in breach of its human rights obligations” under the 25-year-old EU-Israel Association Agreement.
While the document acknowledges the reality of violence by Hamas, it states that this issue lies outside its scope — failing to address the Palestinian terrorist group’s role in sparking the current war with its bloody rampage across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
Israeli officials have slammed the report as factually incorrect and morally flawed, noting that Hamas embeds its military infrastructure within civilian targets and Israel’s army takes extensive precautions to try and avoid civilian casualties.
In a Dutch parliamentary debate on Gaza on Thursday, Veldkamp also announced that the government would not recognize a Palestinian state for now — a position that stands in sharp contrast to the recent moves by several other EU member states to extend recognition.
“The Netherlands is not planning to recognize a Palestinian state at this time,” the Dutch diplomat said.
“This war has ceased to be a just war and is now leading to the erosion of Israel’s own security and identity,” he continued.
This latest decision goes against the position of several EU member states, including France, which has committed to recognizing Palestinian statehood in September.
The United Kingdom has likewise indicated it will do so unless Israel acts to ease the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and agrees to a ceasefire.
For its part, Germany said it was not planning to recognize a Palestinian state in the short term, and Italy argued that recognition must occur simultaneously with the recognition of Israel by the new entity.
Spain, Norway, Ireland, and Slovenia all recognized a Palestinian state last year.
Israel has been facing growing pressure from several EU member states seeking to undermine its defensive campaign against the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas in Gaza.
On Thursday, European Commission Vice President Teresa Ribera strongly condemned Israel’s actions in the war-torn enclave, describing the situation as a “grave violation of human dignity.”
“What we are seeing is a concrete population being targeted, killed and condemned to starve to death,” Ribera told Politico. “If it is not genocide, it looks very much like the definition used to express its meaning.”
Until now, the European Commission has refrained from accusing Israel of genocide, but Ribera’s comments mark one of the strongest European condemnations since the outbreak of the war in Gaza.
She also called on the EU to take decisive action by considering the suspension of its trade agreement with Israel and the implementation of sanctions, while emphasizing that such measures would require unanimous approval from all member states.
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Graduate Student Unions Promoting Antisemitism, Reform Group Says
Students listen to a speech at a protest encampment at Stanford University in Stanford, California US, on April 26, 2024. Photo: Carlos Barria via Reuters Connect.
Higher-education-based unions controlled by United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers of America (UE) are rife with antisemitism and anti-Zionist discrimination, according to a new letter imploring the US Congress’s House Committee on Education and the Workforce to address the matter.
“Tracing its roots to communism in the 1930s, the UE is a radical, pro-Hamas labor union that has a long history of antisemitism,” the National Right to Work Foundation (NRTW), one of the US’s leading labor reform groups, wrote on July 30 in a message obtained by The Algemeiner. “The UE openly supports the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement, which is designed to cripple and destroy Israel economically. Today, the UE furthers its antisemitic agenda by unionizing graduate students on college campuses and using its exclusive representation powers to create a hostile environment for Jewish students. The hostile environment includes demanding compulsory dues to fund the UE’s abhorrent activities.”
NRTW went on to describe a litany of alleged injustices to which UE members subject Jewish student-employees in the US’s most prestigious institutions of higher education, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to Cornell University. At MIT, the letter said, “union officers” aided a riotous group which illegally occupied a section of campus with a “Gaza Solidarity Encampment,” participating in the demonstration and even denying access to campus buildings. UE members at Stanford University, meanwhile, allegedly denied religious accommodations to Jewish students who requested exemption from union dues over that branch’s supporting the BDS movement. And Cornell University UE was accused of denying religious exemptions in several cases as well and followed up the rejection with an intrusive “questionnaire” which probed Jewish students for “legally-irrelevant information.”
The situation requires federal oversight and intervention, NRTW said, including Congress’s possibly clarifying that student-employees are not traditional employees and are therefore afforded protections under sections of the Civil Rights Act which apply to the campus.
“These continuing patterns of antisemitism are illegal, immoral, and must be stopped,” the letter continued. “We encourage you to do all that is in your power to investigate and help bring an end to the UE and its affiliates’ nonstop harassment and intimidation of Jewish students … The Trump administration can also use tools available to it under Title VI and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act against colleges who work with unions to create a hostile environment for Jewish students.”
July’s letter is not the first time NRTW has publicized alleged antisemitic abuse in unions representing higher education employees.
In 2024, it represented a group of six City University of New York (CUNY) professors, five of whom are Jewish, who sued to be “freed” from CUNY’s Professional Staff Congress (PSC-CUNY) over its passing a resolution during Israel’s May 2021 war with Hamas which declared solidarity with Palestinians and accused the Jewish state of ethnic cleansing, apartheid, and crimes against humanity. The group contested New York State’s “Taylor Law,” which it said chained the professors to the union’s “bargaining unit” and denied their right to freedom of speech and association by forcing them to be represented in negotiations by an organization they claim holds antisemitic views.
That same year, NRTW prevailed in a discrimination suit filed to exempt another cohort of Jewish MIT students from paying dues to the Graduate Student Union (GSU). The students had attempted to resist financially supporting GSU’s anti-Zionism, but the union bosses attempted to coerce their compliance, telling them that “no principles, teachings, or tenets of Judaism prohibit membership in or the payment of dues or fees” to the union.
“All Americans should have a right to protect their money from going to union bosses they don’t support, whether those objections are based on religion, politics, or any other reason,” NRTW said at the time.
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.