Bill C-304 (Canadian Human Rights Act: Protecting Freedom) was voted past third reading on June 6 in the House of Commons by a vote of 153 to 135.
Brian Storseth, Conservative MP for St. Paul – Westlock, first motioned to repeal Section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act in 2008. The section bans hate speech transmitted over the Internet or by telephone. Hate speech remains illegal under the Criminal Code.
“Thankfully, we were able to pass it,” said Storseth. He noted it was unusual for a private member's bill to get three readings. “This is something that's historical…230 members of parliament have ever been able to get something through to this stage so I'm very excited about it.”
Storseth said he is glad to see the bill pass but hoped there would be more support from the opposition.
“Unfortunately, only one opposition member ended up supporting it…Some Liberals felt that this was just such an important part of Pierre Elliot Trudeau's vision for Canada that they didn't want to support getting rid of it,” said Storseth. “At the end of the day, one of their members broke ranks because freedom of speech is important to everybody. This wasn't a government bill versus opposition; this is something that (is important to) Canadians from coast to coast.”
Storseth said he hopes the provincial governments will follow federal legislature in changing laws pertaining to free speech.
“I'm also hoping the provincial governments will also follow suite and repeal their own sections,” he said. “In Alberta, we have Section 3 that does almost the exact same thing (as Section 13). It's something that I think also infringes on our freedoms.”
Shayne Saskiw, MLA for Lac La Biche – St Paul – Two Hills and member of the Wildrose party, said he fully supports the changing of Bill C-304 and hopes Premier Redford will keep her promise to change Section 3, the province's bill that is similar to Section 13 (Bill C304).
“We in the Wildrose applaud Brian Storseth's efforts passing this bill. We think it's a very positive step in the right direction. We're hoping we can do the equivalent action here in Alberta by amending the Alberta Human Rights Act to repeal Section 3,” said Saskiw.
“Premier (Alison) Redford also campaigned on it during both her leadership campaign and afterwards but she hasn't done anything on it since and we hope that she keeps her promise and repeal Section 3,” Saskiw continued.
Storseth said it is important Freedom of Speech issues be dealt with by police officers rather than “simple servants.” He said hate crimes are a “serious offence” that should be looked at more carefully.
“You should have police officers looking at it, not civil servants. You should have real lawyers and real judges presiding over the courts, not in some quasi-judicial body that nobody ever hears about.”
While the bill has gotten support from the Canadian Civil Liberties Association and religious groups, opposition critics and the Canadian Bar Association (CBA) are among those that feel that human rights commissions should be able to investigate online hate speech or to request violating websites be taken down. “Over the years, human rights commissions have remained at the vanguard of eliminating discrimination based on race, religion, gender, disability, sexual orientation, and other grounds, and advancing equality,” the CBA stated in a report.
But Saskiw agreed with Storseth, stating that hate speech should always be dealt with under the court system.
“What's happening is that you have bureaucrats elected by the province and it's a kangaroo court. It's not like a real court where you have real lawyers and real judges. Real issues like hate speech, where it's already in the criminal code, should be decided in the court system,” he said.
“We shouldn't have some type of censorship body like the Human Rights Commission censoring what people say. I can say something and I may offend other people but we still have the right to say it.
“What we've seen in the past is that pastors and priests have been brought before the Human Rights Commission for saying their beliefs even in their own private congregation and we (the Wildrose) think that's wrong.”
Now that the bill has passed third reading, it will go to the Senate for further review, which is a process that can take up to a year before the law will be put into place.
