Minister of Justice Tables New Hate Crime Bill

Justice Minister Sean Fraser has tabled the government’s new hate crime legislation, which aims to add four new criminal offences to the Criminal Code.

“It is disheartening when you read the news and see, day after day, stories about yet another victim suffering a hate crime at the hands of someone who is not simply conducting a criminal activity, but who’s motivated by their hatred towards an entire group of people,” Fraser said at a Sept. 19 press conference discussing the new bill.

Bill C-9, also known as the Combatting Hate Act, will create four new criminal offences, Fraser said. The first two offences are for the new crimes of obstructing or intimidating those who seek to use faith-based institutions, such as synagogues, mosques, churches, and temples, as well as schools, community centres, or other facilities designated for specific groups.

The third will make hate-motivated crime a specific offence. This could apply to someone robbing a store because the owner is part of a particular group, or harassing someone seeking to attend a university because they belong to a particular faith or racial community.

The fourth offence involves the intentional promotion of hate through the use of “hate symbols,” such as symbols used by Nazis, Hamas, and other government-designated terror groups, as well as those that could be “reasonably confused” for those entities. Fraser noted this will not be a “blanket ban” on displaying particular symbols, but will depend on the specific circumstances and focus on those used to willfully promote hatred.

The justice minister said the new legislation will also make it “easier” for law enforcement to take action by adding a definition of “hatred” to the Criminal Code and removing a requirement for the consent of the provincial attorney general to prosecute a hate crime

This will allow police to “do their job when they see hate in our communities,” Fraser said.

Penalties

Those who promote hatred by displaying a “hate symbol” could face imprisonment of up to two years, while those committing a hate crime could face imprisonment of five years up to a life sentence, depending on the “severity of the underlying criminal offence.”

For criminal offences with a reduced penalty, the corresponding hate crime would incur a similarly reduced penalty, Fraser said. In contrast, the most serious offences, which carry longer penalties, would also lead to extended penalties for hate crimes.

Provinces and municipalities could also create “bubble zones” as protest-free areas around designated buildings, but these are not part of the legislation submitted by the federal government, the justice department says.

A justice department press release said the legislation respects Canadians’ Charter freedoms of expression and peaceful assembly, and would not “unreasonably” impact the freedom to protest or voice concerns peacefully. Instead, the bill aims to target conduct where the motivation is to intimidate or obstruct someone from practicing their faith, Fraser told reporters.

“This bill goes to great lengths to specifically protect the ability of Canadians to take part in peaceful protests and to freely express themselves in a non-violent way,” Fraser said.

The bill comes in response to an increase in religiously motivated hate crimes in recent years, with Jewish groups such as the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs sounding the alarm about the rise in anti-Semitic incidents in Canada since Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.

According to Statistics Canada data, there were 920 police-reported hate crimes targeting Jewish people in 2024—far outweighing other types of religiously motivated attacks that year.

Bill C-9 is the first of three pieces of legislation the Liberal government intends to table during this fall parliamentary sitting. Fraser has noted that a number of measures relating to bail reform, sentencing, and delays in the justice system will be tabled in October, while measures relating to intimate partner violence, protecting kids online, and victims in the criminal justice system will be introduced later this fall sitting.