Mark Slapinski

00:00:00.080 I have an announcement, and this is serious.

00:00:03.080 If the Liberal government has its way, I could be going to prison.

00:00:06.740 And it's not just me.

00:00:08.220 Other Conservatives that do what I do are also at risk.

00:00:11.740 I'm going to show you a clip of Andrew Lawton, an MP,

00:00:14.120 speaking about this issue in Parliament,

00:00:16.000 and then I'm going to explain at the end why I'm really worried.

00:00:19.040 Thank you very much, Madam Speaker.

00:00:21.580 It is a privilege to be able to speak to Bill C-9.

00:00:26.100 Although I have grave concerns with not the objective,

00:00:31.720 but the manner in which the Liberals have gone about trying to achieve that.

00:00:34.900 Let me, from the outset, say that I'm grateful the Liberals have finally recognized

00:00:38.400 that there is a wave of hate sweeping this country.

00:00:41.840 I'm glad they've realized what the Jewish community in this country,

00:00:45.420 among others, has been crying out for for years,

00:00:47.780 which is a government that will listen to these concerns

00:00:49.940 and understand the very real threats that are targeting them on a regular basis.

00:00:55.240 But just as the Liberals have done with Bill C-2,

00:00:57.760 just as they've done on the firearms file,

00:00:59.480 they take a legitimate issue and they offer a remedy

00:01:03.300 that attacks the rights of citizens and expands the state's power,

00:01:09.360 often without the checks and balances necessary.

00:01:11.980 Now, Bill C-9 does five things.

00:01:14.380 It repeals the requirement that the Attorney General

00:01:16.980 consents to proceedings for hate charges.

00:01:20.460 It creates an offense of willfully promoting hatred

00:01:22.880 against an identifiable group by displaying certain symbols in a public place.

00:01:27.280 It creates a hate crime offense for committing an offense

00:01:31.460 that is motivated by hate.

00:01:33.200 It creates an offense of intimidating a person

00:01:35.400 to impede them from accessing certain places

00:01:37.900 predominantly used for religious worship.

00:01:40.520 And it creates an offense of intentionally obstructing

00:01:43.620 or interfering with a person's lawful access to such places.

00:01:47.200 Now, of these five things, three of them are already covered by existing laws.

00:01:53.680 Creating an offense of willfully promoting hatred by displaying a symbol.

00:01:57.600 Section 319-2 of the Criminal Code already targets the willful promotion of hatred.

00:02:04.240 It targets incitement of hatred.

00:02:06.220 And the courts have been very broad in their interpretation

00:02:09.180 of how that communication must take place.

00:02:11.960 Symbols are a part of that.

00:02:13.940 And I could actually give an example from my own writing

00:02:16.860 where someone was charged just within the last two weeks

00:02:20.040 in central Elgin, Ontario with a hate charge under 319-2

00:02:25.020 after having mowed a swastika into their front lawn.

00:02:28.880 The display of a hate symbol led to a hate charge under the existing law.

00:02:35.240 Creating a hate offense is also redundant

00:02:37.940 because hate motivation is already an aggravating factor

00:02:40.700 under Section 718-2 of the Criminal Code.

00:02:44.840 And it has been consistently applied by the courts.

00:02:48.180 Creating offenses for intimidation and obstruction at places of worship

00:02:52.080 already criminalized under Section 423 of the Criminal Code,

00:02:57.040 Section 431 and 434.1

00:03:00.560 as well as under the laws pertaining to threats, 264.1.

00:03:04.840 And so what we are left with when we strip away these three things

00:03:10.560 which are already covered by existing laws are two things.

00:03:14.520 C9 really does two things.

00:03:17.080 Number one, it removes the requirement for the Attorney General to consent.

00:03:20.980 Now this has been viewed by activists and advocates

00:03:23.960 on the left and the right in this country

00:03:25.480 as a necessary safeguard against overzealous and political prosecutions

00:03:31.760 by law enforcement or by Crown attorneys

00:03:36.060 or by law enforcement that simply don't understand this

00:03:39.520 because it is a rarely applied provision of the law.

00:03:43.060 And the next part of it, and this is the most egregious part

00:03:46.280 and where I will spend the remainder of my time, Madam Speaker,

00:03:49.320 the government is codifying a new definition of hate.

00:03:54.560 A new definition of hate.

00:03:56.180 Now, Bill C-9 describes hatred as, quote,

00:03:58.680 the emotion that involves detestation or vilification

00:04:02.000 and that is stronger than disdain or dislike.

00:04:06.620 Now, the government has said this is adapted from the Keegstra Supreme Court decision,

00:04:11.500 a seminal free expression case in Canada,

00:04:14.100 but it actually changes something very key.

00:04:17.300 In Keegstra, the court held that hatred connotes emotion

00:04:19.920 of an intense and extreme nature

00:04:22.260 that is clearly associated with vilification and detestation.

00:04:25.980 This was expanded on in the Watcott decision,

00:04:28.800 which says hate is extreme manifestations of the emotion

00:04:32.840 described by the words detestation and vilification.

00:04:36.420 The word extreme does not appear in Bill C-9.

00:04:40.920 Now, the government is very proud of this bill.

00:04:43.320 The government has had all summer to work on it.

00:04:45.300 They have had, I don't know how many stakeholders,

00:04:47.600 staffers, bureaucrats, lawmakers and lawyers look over it

00:04:51.200 with every, I imagine, every clause with a fine-tooth comb.

00:04:55.980 Omitting a word, an operative word,

00:04:59.520 a very key word in a very key section of this bill is no accident.

00:05:03.980 The government is, to use a legal term,

00:05:05.880 willfully lowering the threshold on what constitutes hate

00:05:09.940 by extension expanding the state's power

00:05:12.360 and lowering the threshold of what can be regarded

00:05:15.200 as free expression in this country.

00:05:17.440 Now, why this is so important to me and to the Canadians

00:05:21.040 who have been speaking out about Bill C-9 to this point,

00:05:23.340 Madam Speaker, is because this government has been,

00:05:25.740 to its credit, very transparent

00:05:27.200 on where it wants to go on free expression.

00:05:30.980 In the last two parliaments,

00:05:32.480 the Liberal government has introduced sweeping censorship bills

00:05:35.200 that have been decried by voices on the left and the right

00:05:38.260 under the auspices of tackling so-called online harms.

00:05:41.980 Now, the Liberals have told us, as recently as last week,

00:05:45.860 that this is coming back.

00:05:48.020 The online harms bill is still very much a live issue.

00:05:52.140 So we cannot look at Bill C-9 in isolation.

00:05:55.300 We cannot disentangle it from this Liberal government's

00:05:58.180 stated attitudes already about freedom of expression

00:06:01.980 and, quite frankly, the contempt in which they hold

00:06:05.720 free expression and open debate.

00:06:07.820 Now, I'm going to quote someone that I believe the Liberals

00:06:11.660 have a great affinity for,

00:06:12.860 and that is former Canadian Chief Justice Beverly McLaughlin.

00:06:15.960 In her Keegstra dissent, she wrote,

00:06:19.220 If the guarantee of free expression is to be meaningful,

00:06:22.400 it must protect expression which challenges

00:06:24.860 even the very basic conceptions about our society.

00:06:28.320 A true commitment to freedom demands nothing less.

00:06:31.700 Freedom of expression, I should say, demands nothing less.

00:06:34.280 We do not need to look far to see what happens

00:06:37.000 when the threshold for hate is lowered.

00:06:40.540 In the United Kingdom, police are not even rarely

00:06:43.640 knocking on doors and arresting people over mean tweets.

00:06:48.040 Because the same desire that we're seeing behind

00:06:51.720 some of the negative and concerning impulses in C-9

00:06:54.960 is criminalizing hate based on the grounds

00:06:58.120 that words are violence.

00:07:00.780 Censors justify their limitations on freedom of expression,

00:07:03.820 by elevating speech to violence.

00:07:07.200 It is not for the state to discern,

00:07:09.200 let alone prosecute, hate that may exist in one's heart.

00:07:12.300 The law is to punish action,

00:07:14.840 and the existing laws already do this.

00:07:18.220 Now, I'd be remiss to not point out

00:07:19.700 that the Liberals only get tough on crime

00:07:22.440 when they're talking about thought criminals.

00:07:24.560 These are the only people that the Liberals

00:07:26.160 want to put behind bars.

00:07:28.060 So let's look at some of the real hate crimes

00:07:30.220 across the country.

00:07:31.060 According to Juneau News,

00:07:32.760 130-some-odd churches have been vandalized

00:07:35.940 or victimized by arson since 2021.

00:07:39.060 Synagogues in Canada have been firebombed

00:07:41.180 and vandalized,

00:07:42.200 and Jewish schools have been shot at.

00:07:44.720 If the Liberals were serious about real hate crimes,

00:07:48.280 they would be seeking mandatory 10-year prison sentences

00:07:50.960 for these heinous assaults on places of worship.

00:07:53.980 Again, the law should punish bad behavior

00:07:56.500 and not bad feelings.

00:07:59.120 And to be fair, we cannot confront

00:08:01.260 the hatred that exists in Canada

00:08:03.480 and in Canadian society

00:08:04.960 without acknowledging some of the root causes of it.

00:08:07.860 The crisis of hate

00:08:09.220 is a direct consequence of 10 years

00:08:12.040 of divisive Liberal identity politics

00:08:14.540 and the reckless breaking of the immigration system

00:08:18.120 by this Liberal government.

00:08:19.280 We cannot talk about hate

00:08:21.800 without talking about

00:08:23.160 the breaking of the immigration system

00:08:25.080 that has resulted in the importation

00:08:26.880 of foreign conflicts

00:08:27.880 and, in some cases,

00:08:29.260 very hateful ideologies into this country.

00:08:32.580 Now, much of this happened

00:08:33.600 on the watch of the Justice Minister

00:08:35.400 who tabled this bill.

00:08:37.220 He was the Immigration Minister

00:08:38.540 who looked at the first six years

00:08:40.040 of Justin Trudeau's government

00:08:41.220 and how immigration was bungled there

00:08:43.020 and said,

00:08:43.400 don't worry, I can do worse.

00:08:45.400 And he did.

00:08:46.060 It's no coincidence

00:08:47.880 that hate crimes have risen

00:08:49.220 as Canada has become less discerning

00:08:51.480 and more reckless

00:08:52.320 in its handling of the immigration system.

00:08:55.260 This is a crisis of the Liberals' creation.

00:08:58.720 I do not trust those who caused the problem

00:09:01.780 to solve it.

00:09:03.320 And I think all people

00:09:04.500 who may agree with the motivation

00:09:06.500 behind this bill

00:09:07.640 should be very cautious

00:09:09.360 to hand over this level of power

00:09:11.860 to the Liberals

00:09:12.560 when they have already demonstrated

00:09:14.420 where they want to go.

00:09:16.060 They have already demonstrated

00:09:17.500 what they want to do.

00:09:19.380 I'll return to another quote

00:09:21.320 by former Chief Justice McLaughlin

00:09:23.520 because she says,

00:09:26.220 it is not to say

00:09:27.000 that it is always illegitimate

00:09:28.360 for governments to curtail expression,

00:09:30.520 but government attempts to do so

00:09:32.280 must be viewed with suspicion.

00:09:36.020 This Liberal government

00:09:37.040 does not deserve the benefit

00:09:38.700 of the doubt on hate.

00:09:41.100 It does not deserve the benefit

00:09:42.560 of the doubt on protecting

00:09:43.760 charter liberties.

00:09:44.540 It does not deserve

00:09:46.260 the benefit of the doubt

00:09:47.880 on any of the problems

00:09:49.740 that it has been instrumental

00:09:51.360 in either allowing to fester

00:09:53.400 or in some cases outright cause.

00:09:56.600 So Bill C-9,

00:09:58.800 the good is already done

00:10:00.500 by additional laws.

00:10:01.820 The bad should send a warning sign

00:10:04.000 and the Liberals should be very ashamed

00:10:06.380 of trying to sneak this

00:10:07.360 through the back door

00:10:08.360 with a lower threshold for hate

00:10:10.220 in a country that needs to protect

00:10:11.860 and double down on free expression.

00:10:13.700 Thank you.

00:10:15.200 Questions and comments?

00:10:18.080 Hamilton West, Ancaster, Dundas.

00:10:20.720 Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

00:10:22.340 We've got the real Conservative A-Team

00:10:23.940 this afternoon.

00:10:26.540 Repeated Conservative conspiracy theories

00:10:28.920 over and over in the House.

00:10:30.340 If we want to talk about real hate crimes

00:10:32.520 and I'm not quoting, you know,

00:10:34.520 alt-right so-called alternative news,

00:10:37.260 talking about Jewish members

00:10:39.740 in my community

00:10:40.920 who are covering their Jewish identity

00:10:45.160 in public.

00:10:45.820 That is the hate that we're talking about

00:10:47.720 that this bill seeks to address.

00:10:49.760 So I'm trying to understand

00:10:51.480 what is the members opposite

00:10:53.300 real objection to this legislation.

00:10:57.100 And when they talk about freedom of expression,

00:10:59.920 it seems more and more likely

00:11:02.620 that what they're talking about

00:11:04.500 is freedom for their members

00:11:06.380 to say whatever they want

00:11:08.240 without consequences.

00:11:09.880 Is that the real objection?

00:11:11.320 Thank you.

00:11:12.360 The Home Member for Elgin St. Thomas, London South.

00:11:15.080 Mr. Speaker, I wish the member

00:11:16.320 had spent less time working on

00:11:17.820 what he thought was a zinger

00:11:18.740 and more time listening to my speech,

00:11:20.860 where I detailed in excruciatingly

00:11:23.880 and I will argue painful detail,

00:11:26.700 real hate that is occurring

00:11:28.000 against Christians,

00:11:28.920 against the Jewish community.

00:11:29.860 I mentioned the firebombing of synagogues,

00:11:31.760 the shooting of Jewish schools.

00:11:33.260 And by the way,

00:11:33.960 the members should be well aware

00:11:35.000 that the Jewish community

00:11:36.320 has looked at this liberal government

00:11:38.120 and been absolutely ashamed

00:11:40.460 to be represented by people

00:11:42.020 that have cozied up with the very people

00:11:44.380 who are responsible for Jew hatred

00:11:46.920 in this country.

00:11:48.200 So I do not take any cues from this member

00:11:50.520 who wants to accuse conservatives

00:11:51.880 standing up for freedom

00:11:52.920 of being conspiracy theorists.

00:11:54.720 He should be ashamed of that.

00:11:56.000 Here, here, here, here, here.

00:11:57.420 Just the honour and commentaire,

00:11:58.500 the honour of the deputy de Jean-Kierre.

00:12:00.140 The honourable member for Jean-Kierre.

00:12:03.140 Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

00:12:05.000 I was listening to my colleague.

00:12:07.880 He said we should have mandatory minimums

00:12:10.400 for church-based or synagogue-based vandalism.

00:12:16.280 I can see where he gets this idea.

00:12:21.400 But if you take it further,

00:12:23.500 if you take it further,

00:12:24.940 I wonder if my colleague would agree

00:12:26.240 that the religious exemption

00:12:28.620 for hate speech should be abolished or not.

00:12:33.460 What does he think?

00:12:34.200 Should we get rid of the religious exemption

00:12:35.700 in this bill?

00:12:36.380 Thomas London South.

00:12:38.020 Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

00:12:39.120 And I thank my colleague for his question

00:12:40.880 and his commitment to actually interrogating

00:12:43.600 what is not in this bill.

00:12:45.900 And the reason I raised what I did

00:12:47.780 about the lack of stiff penalties

00:12:49.560 for people who assault in heinous ways

00:12:53.160 places of worship

00:12:54.080 is because this is something

00:12:55.380 that is not theoretical.

00:12:56.400 It's not hypothetical.

00:12:57.320 We see it happening

00:12:58.420 on a sadly regular basis in this country.

00:13:00.700 And it is not covered by this liberal law.

00:13:03.900 And liberals in the past

00:13:04.860 have actually been endorsing

00:13:07.400 or rationalizing

00:13:08.860 to some of these assaults on churches.

00:13:10.820 So I think this is an important discussion

00:13:12.580 and I want to see real action on real hate,

00:13:15.660 not lowering the threshold

00:13:16.880 on how we define it.

00:13:18.820 Questions and comments?

00:13:20.060 The Honourable Member

00:13:20.800 for Aurora Oak Ridges, Richmond Hill.

00:13:23.160 Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

00:13:24.500 Mr. Speaker, peculiarly,

00:13:26.140 this bill that the Liberals have put together

00:13:29.340 addresses things that are already covered

00:13:32.060 by the Legal Code of Canada.

00:13:35.620 There are already laws protecting

00:13:37.860 and actually speaking to things

00:13:40.620 like the swastika and other things.

00:13:42.620 Could the Member elaborate a little bit further

00:13:44.520 on why he thinks those things

00:13:46.460 that are already covered by law in Canada

00:13:48.420 are virtually being signaled

00:13:51.380 by these Liberals in debate here in the House?

00:13:56.260 The Honourable Member for Elgin St. Thomas, London South.

00:13:58.180 Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

00:13:59.240 And thank you to my colleague.

00:14:00.300 And that is indeed one of the glaring issues with this.

00:14:02.580 The parts of the bill that there's no objection to

00:14:06.320 from me or my colleagues

00:14:07.720 are things that are already illegal in Canada,

00:14:10.100 making this redundant in a lot of ways.

00:14:12.700 And I pointed to a recent case

00:14:14.300 where someone was charged for displaying a hate symbol

00:14:16.400 under existing hate laws.

00:14:18.220 Now, I have to draw attention to the fact

00:14:20.060 that not half an hour ago,

00:14:21.200 I pointed this out to the Parliamentary Secretary,

00:14:24.200 to the Justice Minister, a lawyer herself,

00:14:26.260 and she had no idea.

00:14:27.400 She had no answer.

00:14:28.160 So if the Liberals have not prepared

00:14:29.860 for the most basic challenging of this,

00:14:32.600 what else have they not actually investigated

00:14:34.620 on their own legislation?

00:14:36.540 Time for a brief question.

00:14:37.560 The Honourable Parliamentary Secretary,

00:14:38.920 the Government House Leader.

00:14:39.880 Mr. Speaker, providing clarity

00:14:41.480 and providing strong legislation

00:14:44.060 is really critically important.

00:14:45.860 We are seeing that in this bill.

00:14:47.400 The question I have for the member is,

00:14:48.940 would he apply the very same principle

00:14:50.720 that he is saying now with respect to this bill

00:14:53.460 to private members' bills,

00:14:55.040 which are numerous coming from the Conservative Party,

00:14:57.100 where the criminal law already covers it?

00:14:59.700 Would he suggest that we...

00:15:00.900 Logan St. Thomas, London South, 25 seconds or less.

00:15:03.580 Thank you.

00:15:04.160 I don't need that much time to say what I've already said

00:15:06.500 because the member I don't think was listening,

00:15:08.240 which is that we need to enforce the existing laws

00:15:10.980 where they already cover what's happening

00:15:12.440 in this country on hate.

00:15:13.560 But moreover, we cannot allow the Liberal government

00:15:15.860 to sneak into law a lower threshold for defining hate

00:15:19.900 that will be used to curb free expression in this country.

00:15:23.220 That was a brilliant speech by Lawton,

00:15:25.140 and I commend him for doing that.

00:15:26.480 In case you're unaware,

00:15:28.140 Andrew Lawton was a long-time political commentator

00:15:30.480 for right-wing news organization True North.

00:15:33.600 And it looks like he's putting his political commentary skills

00:15:35.920 to good use.

00:15:37.420 And I also believe that very few people understand

00:15:39.780 Conservative politics as much as somebody

00:15:42.060 who made a living talking about Conservative politics.

00:15:45.760 So I just wanted to add that.

00:15:47.220 But I do agree with Andrew Lawton about this bill.

00:15:50.000 Bill C-9 is bad news.

00:15:51.920 There's serious concerns with this bill.

00:15:53.480 Canada already has laws against hate speech.

00:15:56.960 However, because freedom of expression is enshrined in the Charter,

00:16:00.620 the standard that has to be met for someone to be charged is really high.

00:16:04.120 And the standard that has to be met for someone to be convicted is even higher.

00:16:08.080 Only the worst of the worst get convicted of hate speech in Canada.

00:16:11.520 And rightfully so.

00:16:12.840 The Liberal government is now trying to change this,

00:16:15.140 meaning that journalists and political commentators will have to walk on eggshells.

00:16:18.480 Now to be fair, this legislation isn't as bad as Trudeau's online harms bill.

00:16:22.980 However, this does show the Liberal government is willing to pick up where Trudeau left off.

00:16:27.680 Quite frankly, I don't approve of hate speech laws at all.

00:16:30.440 While the government says these laws are to prevent against hate speech,

00:16:33.940 they could be used to censor people that are critical of the government.

00:16:37.380 That's why it's a slippery slope and we need to push back.

00:16:40.260 The fact of the matter is that Canada is becoming more and more like the United Kingdom every single day.

00:16:44.280 In case you're unaware, in the United Kingdom, you can literally be sent to jail

00:16:48.280 for criticizing mass immigration or radical Islam.

00:16:52.400 If Carney gets his way, that'll be the end of civilization as we know it in Canada.

00:16:57.280 That being said, it's still legal for me to make these videos right now.

00:17:01.460 However, if the Liberals have their way, people like me will in fact be sent to jail.

00:17:06.840 I'm not fear-mongering.

00:17:08.140 I'm not being hyperbolic.

00:17:09.640 That's the reality we're faced with.

00:17:11.700 And that's why we need PolyEv in office.

00:17:13.440 We really need to get PolyEv in office.

00:17:16.400 Or else, every street corner is going to have a mosque

00:17:19.140 and kids will start learning Arabic and the Quran in elementary school.

00:17:23.640 I'm not joking.

🚨 I Could Be Going To Jail For Doing Journalism

Episode Stats

Hate Speech Sentences

Summary

Transcript