Max Genest - October 08, 2025


OTTAWA'S BILL C-9 HATE LAW IS HATE ITSELF

Hosted by
Max Genest
Mentioned
Bill C-63 Bill C9 Proud Boys
$21,000 TAX MONEY... FOR THIS BANNER？ CANADA JAILS MAN FOR DENYING HOLOCAUST

Episode Stats


Length

2 minutes

Words per minute

166.38

Word count

483

Sentence count

36


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Bill C-9 expands the government s powers to target hate speech online and in public spaces, and could spell the beginning of the end for freedom of speech in Canada. Bill C9 is a hate crime against free speech, but it's also a tool the government can use to keep us safe online.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.000 What if waving the wrong flag or standing in the wrong place could land you 10 years in prison?
00:00:05.920 Well, that's exactly what Ottawa's new Combating Hate Act, Bill C-9, could make possible.
00:00:10.960 On paper, it's about safety and protecting communities. In reality, it quietly expands
00:00:16.360 how the government can police what you say and do. The first thing Bill C-9 targets is symbols.
00:00:21.960 If you publicly display a swastika, assess bolts, or a flag tied to a listed terrorist group,
00:00:27.100 Hamas, ISIS, Proud Boys, you name it, and they decide you're promoting hatred, that's up to two
00:00:33.740 years in prison. Sure, there are exceptions for things like history, journalism, education, or art,
00:00:40.260 but who decides what's legitimate? It's still the government, through the prosecutors enforcing the
00:00:46.820 law drawing that line. Then comes intimidation. If you block or intimidate people trying to reach
00:00:52.960 a synagogue, mosque, daycare, or community center, you can be charged. And if they indict you,
00:00:58.280 that's up to 10 years in prison. They say it doesn't apply if you're only communicating or
00:01:02.860 gathering information on a public issue. But again, do you really want the government judging
00:01:08.240 your intent? Also, they don't mention churches once or Christianity once in this bill. Yet
00:01:13.840 hundreds of churches were burnt to the ground over the last few years. Now, Bill C-9 also removes an
00:01:19.320 old safeguard hate propaganda charges used to require the attorney general sign off a check a
00:01:24.900 barrier now that step is gone police and prosecutors can move straight to charges under the criminal
00:01:31.060 code this will simplify and speed up prosecutions in practice it means fewer checks and more cases
00:01:37.160 hitting the courts and notice this law is written almost entirely for offline behavior no twitter
00:01:43.700 no Instagram, no digital safety commission like Bill C-63, but that doesn't mean your online
00:01:50.140 speech is safe. Because think about it. What's the real difference? If you wave a no-no flag
00:01:56.000 at a rally, that's legal under Bill C-9. If you post that same flag online, technically it isn't
00:02:02.740 covered, but could it be? If they decide your post inspired something offline, then suddenly,
00:02:08.420 could your words be evidence in a hate case? Offline today, online tomorrow, that's how this
00:02:14.180 creeps forward. That's the danger. These aren't safeguards. They're tools of control. They're
00:02:18.480 weapons, loaded weapons. Maybe today they're pointed at Nazis and terrorists, but tomorrow
00:02:23.340 they're pointed at you. So don't listen to the liberals when they say it won't affect peaceful
00:02:28.560 protests. We've heard that before during emergency powers, during COVID mandates, during censorship
00:02:34.000 bills. Every time they promise it's narrow and temporary, it grows. So let's be extra crystal
00:02:40.020 clear. Bill C9 isn't about hate. It's about control. Deciding which ideas, which symbols,
00:02:45.820 which protests are acceptable. You give them that power and you lose your freedom.
00:02:50.380 Bill C9 itself is the hate crime against free speech.