HATRED LAWS

On Bil C-415
The London Free Press
June 18, 2002
By Rory Leishman

Anyone who honestly believes that sexual promiscuity is no less unhealthy and immoral in the case of homosexuals than heterosexuals should beware of saying so in public: Otherwise, he or she could soon end up in jail on charges of wilfully promoting hatred against people on the basis of their sexual orientation.

Currently, the hate propaganda provisions in sections 318 and 319 of the Criminal Code state that anyone who "advocates or promotes genocide" or "incites hatred against any identifiable group" on the basis of their colour, race, religion or ethnic origin is liable upon conviction to a sentence of up to two years in prison. Under terms of Bill C-415, legislation introduced by New Democratic Party MP Svend Robinson, these sections will be extended to include groups identified by their sexual orientation.

For 12 years, Robinson has been pushing these amendments. Now, he is poised to succeed. On May 29, his bill was approved in principle on second reading in the Commons.

Most backers of the bill insist that people who simply deplore homosexual sexual relations without harbouring any hatred for homosexuals and bisexuals have nothing to fear, because the law provides not only that the attorney general must consent to any prosecution for hate propaganda, but also that no Christian, Jew, Muslim or member of any other religious group can be convicted of wilfully promoting hatred, "if, in good faith, he expressed or attempted to establish by argument an opinion on a religious subject."

In 1997, Sylvia MacEachern, the editor of a Roman Catholic journal, the Orator, confessed in an interview on an Ottawa radio station that she subscribes to the assertion in the Catechism of the Catholic Church that homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered and depraved. As a result of this statement, the hate-crimes unit of the Ottawa-Carleton Regional Police placed her under investigation. "I never once thought," she said, "that it would be a crime in Canada to simply state the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church."

As it turned out, the accusations against MacEachern were dismissed, because the hate propaganda provisions of the Criminal Code do not apply to sexually active homosexuals. But what might happen if Bill C-415 is enacted? In a case like MacEachern's, could someone charged with wilfully promoting hatred be confident of an acquittal because he or she was expressing an honestly held religious conviction?

Gwen Landolt does not think so. She is the National Vice President of REAL Women of Canada and an astute constitutional lawyer who formerly worked for the Justice Department. She notes that in recent gay-rights cases, the Ontario Attorney General failed to defend the heterosexual definition of common-law marriage and the Alberta Attorney General surrendered to the demands of two lesbians for the right to adopt children. Landolt concludes: "The provincial Attorneys General appear to be remarkably vulnerable to the political pressure of homosexual activists, and/or alternatively, sympathetic to their demands."

Moreover, the Supreme Court of Canada maintained earlier this year in another gay-rights case, Trinity Western, that the guarantee of freedom of religion in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is not absolute, but subject to severe restrictions. "In short," says Landolt, "the Trinity case appears to reinforce the notion that religious belief is a private matter, only permitted within a church or the home, but not in one’s public actions or expressions."

During debate on Bill C-415, Vic Toews, the Canadian Alliance justice critic, did not object to broadening the hate propaganda sections of the Criminal Code to include sexual orientation. On the contrary, he regretted that, "a number of other Canadians who may be targeted for reasons of age, health, disability, social status or a number of other characteristics would not be afforded the same protection."

Are at least church leaders decrying the totalitarian imposition of so-called gay rights on Canadians? For the most part, no. As so often before when the church has come under attack by an oppressive regime, the great majority of clergy -- Catholic and Protestant -- have either conformed their thinking to the secular fashion, or are cowering in silence.

Rory Leishman
836 Wellington St.,
London, Ontario,
Canada N6A 3S7
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