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The
Justice Committee sent Bill C250 back to Parliament May
26 with no amendments (and without properly dealing with
it), despite widespread opposition from Canadians.
Background:
Bill
C250, which proposes an amendment to the hate crime laws
of Canada, has been called “dangerous”. What
the proposed law would do is silence everyone who does
not agree with certain sexual behaviours. In fact they
can be charged with a criminal offence. The amendment
proposes adding sexual orientation (a completely undefined
term) to subsection 318(4). To equate undefined sexual
behaviours in the same category as race, colour, ethnic
origin or religion is offensive to most Canadians.
Freedom
of expression, freedom of speech, freedom of religion
and even freedom of conscience are in grave danger, despite
the rhetoric from homosexual lobby groups and one MP that
insist these freedoms are protected in the Charter of
Rights . They also claim there is special protection in
the law for religious arguments. In reality, courts and
human rights tribunals have accorded greater weight to
protecting minority interests than in protecting democratic
freedoms. In just the past year, several decisions by
courts and human rights tribunals have oppressed freedom
of speech and religious freedom in favour of homosexual
"rights". To date, people who spoke against
homosexual behaviour have received fines. If Bill C250
is passed, voicing a position against homosexual behaviour
will result in far more than a fine – it will result
in criminal convictions.
There
can be no amendments that make this a "safe"
Bill .
WHAT
YOU MUST DO:
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Call
your Member of Parliament and ask them to vote
to defeat Bill C250 in Parliament ( it could be in
Parliament in early June 2003). MPs are expected to
represent the views of constituents. Make sure that
they are aware of your views.
Find your MP by calling 1-800- 622-6232 (O- CANADA)
or click on Find
your MP
Ask your MP for a call back to inform you how they
voted and if your views were represented in Parliament.
If they do not call, call them back.
Make this a litmus test for how you vote in the next
election. Protection of freedom of speech and religion
is a worthy measurement. You have a right to be represented
in Parliament.
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Call
FIVE friends and inform them of the dangers of
C250. Ask them to make a commitment to call their
MP . Ask if each friend will also call five friends.
Invest the time to make these crucial calls. Canada
is still worth it.
-
Write a letter to your local paper soon about
this Bill - help inform your community.
When
Parliament votes on Bill C250, CFAC will be publishing
a list of all MPs and how they voted on this crucial issue.
There can be no amendments to make this a "safe"
Bill .
We
only have a few days to make these calls so do not delay
.
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CFAC
Assessment of Bill C250 and the Current Hate Crime Laws
Many
were shocked when Bill C250 automatically returned to
Parliament May 27 without being fully dealt with and without
a vote from Justice Committee.
You
should know that when this Bill passed at second reading
there were only about 16 MPs out of 301 present. Clearly
not representative of Canadian voters.
It
then went to the Justice Committee for study and hearings.
They did hold limited public hearings but thousands of
Canadians let their views be known through fax, email,
letters and calls. ( We are trying to get that public
information ). CFAC alone forwarded 60,000 letters from
good Canadian citizens that asked that Bill 250 be defeated.
The
Committee was set to vote on this Bill May 14 but was
prevented from doing so due to a procedural manipulation
by the author of the Bill, MP Svend Robinson. He filibustered
the process and prevented the vote. His disrespect and
interference with the democratic process is deplorable
( unfortunately the rules allowed this).
The
real concerns that lie in C250 are not about preventing
hate crimes, Canada already has very good laws to deal
with violence and crime. Few, if any Canadians support
hate-based violence against anyone. However, violence
for all reasons is already illegal in Canada and has been
for centuries. Canada already has good laws in place that
deal with violence. This is meant to restrict what you
say, write or even what you think. This law is intended
to address freedom of speech, not hate crimes by any Canadian.
Criminalizing
speech and views that disagree with sodomy and other sexual
behaviours is simply a tactic to “gag” people.
The dangers of Bill 250 is the sloppy language of the
current hate crime law itself. The terms “propagation
of hate”, and ”promotion of hate”, and
even the term “hate” itself are not defined
in legislation. Therein lies the danger of Bill C250.
Unclear and non-defined language in such an important
criminal law is unacceptable and dangerous. Judges will
be required to “interpret” what people say and
rule it as hateful. That is dangerous when the prevailing
ideology of judges appointed by the Prime Minister are
liberal, anti- religious and anti- free speech. This Bill
is about restrictions to free speech .
If
the undefined term “sexual orientation” is added
to the current wording of hate legislation, we would have
a dangerous law that can be used against any citizen who
does not agree with homosexual behaviours, especially
sodomy. Speech and thought alone may become criminal.
A clause which is purported to protect religious arguments
is foolishness. That says that religions that oppose sodomy
and homosexual behaviours are hateful ( Jewish, Christian
, Islam). That is clearly not true. The implications are
obvious . This is especially significant in light of the
recent trend of judicial activism by courts, where judges
are interpreting laws according to their personal agendas
and liberal ideology rather than based in true justice
and rule of law set out in our Constitution and Charter.
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