Bill C-9: Passes Into Law

Bill C-9, the Combatting Hate Act has passed into law.

Following debate and amendment in the Senate, the House of Commons (“House”) reviewed the Senate’s amendments and passed Bill C-9. It received Royal Assent on June 18, 2026 and will be in force 30 days later.

Debates and Amendments

Regular blog readers will recall that the Senate passed Bill C-9 without making any amendments to address religious expression, despite being urged to do so by lawyers, civil liberties organizations and a diverse array of faith groups. During debate over the past week, the House likewise did not reinstate the good faith religious defence.

The Senate passed an amendment to add noose to the list of symbols to the offence of wilful promotion of hatred by displaying terrorism and hate symbols. This amendment was also passed by the House.

The Senate did not pass an amendment to address problems with the “for greater certainty” clauses. These clauses were added in response to significant outcry over the repeal of the good faith religious defence and were intended to clarify the scope of conduct captured by the hate offences.

What’s Next?

As we noted in our last blog update, legislators have repeatedly stated that the right to read and teach sacred texts, to express sincerely held religious beliefs, to advocate for values in the public square – to practice religion – does not constitute a crime.

In a news release, the Department of Justice takes the position that “the law does not:

• Criminalize religious teaching
• Restrict the ability to preach, read scripture, or practice religion
• Ban peaceful protest or political advocacy
• Create ‘bubble zones’ or
• Criminalize opinions, disagreement, or criticism”

The news release speaks directly about removing the good faith religious defence as follows:

The law repeals the former good faith religious opinion defence that applied to certain hate propaganda offences, which was enacted before the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The repeal does not criminalize religious teaching, nor does it restrict the ability to preach, read scripture or practice religion in good faith. Freedom of expression and freedom of religion remain protected under Charter. Hate propaganda offences continue to require a high legal threshold, including proof that a person acted wilfully to promote hatred against an identifiable group.

The biggest question is whether and how Bill C-9’s provisions will be enforced. With the exception of a new, overarching “add-on” hate offence, the conduct the government seeks to criminalize is already punishable under existing Criminal Code sections.

For example, Bill C-9 creates an offence through the use of symbols, but symbols are already included under the category of “signs” or “visible representations” in the offences of public incitement of hatred, wilful promotion of hatred, and wilful promotion of antisemitism.

This begs the question of why existing tools have not been put to effective use and whether the new offences are going to be used or are simply a way of being seen to address an issue.

If and when there is enforcement, there could be constitutional challenges, particularly with removal of the good faith religious defence. On this point, the Supreme Court has stated that the available defences help to preserve the constitutionality of the offence.

We will be following the implementation and enforcement, if any, of the new hate offences closely, particularly as they may impact good faith religious expression.

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