Ottawa/Fraser Valley – – The Canadian Constitution Foundation (CCF) welcomes January 27’s news that Bill C-9 has been put on hold, calling it a necessary response to serious and unresolved conflicts between the proposed hate crimes legislation and Canada’s Constitutional protections for free expression.
Bill C-9 was unsound from the start. Rather than narrowly targeting violence or threats, it would have expanded criminal law into the realm of ordinary expression, lowered the threshold for criminal speech, and stripped away long-standing safeguards designed to protect Charter rights. As the bill developed, its problems only became more glaring. A December amendment to the bill even threatened to remove good-faith religious belief as an exemption from hate speech.
The CCF was at the forefront of opposition to Bill C-9. Litigation Director Christine Van Geyn spoke before the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights in November, and submitted a comprehensive written brief, warning that the bill posed an unjustified threat to freedom of expression. The CCF consistently called on Parliament to withdraw the bill entirely, including by mobilizing public support through a widely-circulated email campaign that helped more than 7,000 Canadians write their MPs.
“Bill C-9 threatened Constitutionally-protected expression and would have led to the chilling of necessary public debate across Canada,” said Van Geyn. “Shelving it for now is an important step toward preserving free speech, which we hope leads to the full abandonment of this deeply flawed legislation.”
The CCF hopes the Carney government will now recognize that legislation built on such deep constitutional defects cannot be salvaged and should not be pursued.
In a Facebook response, former Chilliwack School Trustee Barry Neufeld, who has had his share of legal issues, commented on his page: Bill C-9 has been put on hold after strong opposition from the Canadian Constitution Foundation (CCF) and the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms, (JCCF) which raised concerns that the legislation could undermine Charter-protected freedoms like expression and open debate. I have been on trial in front of the BC Human Rights Tribunal for almost eight years! The three week + 3 day hearing wrapped up in May, 2025. They were supposed to hand down their decision within six months: by the end of November. Then they said it would not be until the end of January 2026 (this month) I bet they were waiting for Bill C-9 to go through, so if they convict me of Hate Speech, I would go to jail. But now C-9 has been postponed.
