Commentary
Imagine a school board candidate in the 2026 Ontario elections. Her campaign literature says that parents are the first educators of their children—and that teachers should not keep gender transitions of children secret from parents. She quotes the Bible.
An activist group files a complaint alleging her statements constitute hate speech. A friendly prosecutor lays charges. Her flyers are seized. She is prohibited from speaking.
Five years later she is cleared—but the election is long over.
Before a promised amendment to Bill C-9, this scenario would have been legally impossible. Expressing views “based on a belief in a religious text” provided a defence against hate speech charges—even if the expression was controversial. But the Liberal-Bloc effort to remove this religious-belief defence changes everything. By scrapping protections for “good-faith expression based on a belief in a religious text,” Parliament is about to hand activists a powerful new election tool: the ability to shut down an opponent’s campaign before it starts….