US State Senator Visiting Canada Says Combatting Hate Act Impedes Religious Freedoms

A U.S. state senator is coming to Canada to speak at an event warning against the erosion of religious liberties in the country. Ahead of the trip, he wrote to MPs, saying Bill C-9, the Combatting Hate Act, threatens fundamental rights to free speech.

Shane Jett, a senior senator in the Oklahoma State Senate, wrote to Canadian members of Parliament on Oct. 2, saying that religious freedoms are under attack, especially those of Christians.

The letter comes ahead of his Oct. 5 visit to Ottawa to speak at a special event at the Capital City Bikers’ Church dubbed “Are Canadian Christians Safe?” The event will also feature former Conservative federal cabinet minister Stockwell Day.

Day shared Jett’s letter on social media this weekend, ahead of Jett’s visit to Ontario.

“Religious freedoms facing ongoing assaults in Canada gets attention of US State Senator,” he wrote on X. “His visit to Canada is not to criticize, it’s to ask how this could happen, and to encourage. Things could get interesting.”

In his letter, Jett expresses concern that Canadian policymakers are losing their connection to Canada’s founding principles. He cited the opening line of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms stating Canada was “founded upon principles that recognize the supremacy of God and the rule of law,” adding that such language was “not ornamental.”

“It reflects a public order in which faith was not treated as a private eccentricity, but as part of the nation’s moral and legal inheritance,” he wrote. “Recent developments sit in growing tension with that inheritance.”

He said Bill C-9’s removal of the long-standing defence for good-faith expression of opinion based on a religious text, “has narrowed the legal space in which clergy and lay believers may teach what Scripture has always taught on marriage, sexuality, and the created order.”

Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government has said Bill C-9’s removal of the “good faith religious opinion” defence from the Criminal Code will not criminalize good-faith religious teaching, preaching, or reading scripture.

Jett argued that Christians’ religious freedoms have already begun to erode under the Liberal government’s tenure. He cited the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) policy directing chaplains and members to replace faith-specific prayers with secular, non-religious “spiritual reflections” when delivering remarks at official, mandatory public ceremonies. 

He also noted the burning and vandalism of churches across Canada, which he argued had received “little public urgency in response” and pastors and street preachers facing arrest and prosecution for “public witness tied to biblical teaching.”

Several pastors were arrested and jailed primarily for defying provincial public health restrictions regarding gathering limits, masking, and physical distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic. There have also been some arrests for protesting at LGBT events such as drag queen story hour events for children. 

Jett also expressed concern about the sanctioning of those who speak out against the Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI) curriculum in Canadian schools. He said government policies, such as those in British Columbia, have placed dissenting parents and trustees “in a difficult position.”

He cited the case of former Chilliwack school trustee Barry Neufeld as an example. 

The B.C. Human Rights Tribunal ordered Neufeld to pay $750,000 to the Chilliwack Teachers’ Association after ruling earlier this year that he had violated the Human Rights Code by publishing content that it deemed “discriminatory” and exposed LGBT people “to hatred or contempt.” Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre called the ruling “insane and Orwellian.” 

Jett said Neufeld’s experience can be “widely read as a warning” that disagreement is not just debated but sanctioned. 

“That is not open dialogue,” he said. “It is pressure toward conformity.”

Jett concluded his letter by asking Canadian lawmakers to reinstate the religious freedoms removed by Bill C-9 to reaffirm that “teaching the historic Christian faith is not hate speech.”

 “A nation confident in its liberties does not fear the Scriptures that helped form it,” he added. “I will continue to encourage my colleagues in Oklahoma, and friends across the United States, to stand with Canadians who wish to worship, preach, and raise their children without fear of legal penalty for holding the faith of their fathers.”

The Epoch Times contacted the office of Justice Minister Sean Fraser for comment but did not immediately hear back.

Fraser has billed the Combatting Hate Act as a necessity to address hate crime in Canada. The bill became law after receiving royal ascent on June 18.

“We’ve seen synagogues struck by gunfire, places of worship vandalized or burned, and people being targeted in their own communities. That is unacceptable,” Fraser said in a June press release. “We cannot allow that kind of hate to become normal in Canada. These changes will help people worship and gather safely in their own communities, while supporting law enforcement with clearer tools to respond.”