Mastodawn

I'm pretty disappointed the NDP voted against this. Most of the hate and abuse I've received for being LGBTQ has been from people citing their religion.

People should not be able to hide behind religious exemptions to commit hate crimes. They also should not be able to hide behind their religion to discriminate against LGBTQ people.

I'm tired of 'religious freedom' being used as an excuse to harm, torment and hurt LGBTQ people.

#cdnpoli

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/bill-c-9-anti-hate-religious-exemption-hate-speech-9.7142455

Contentious anti-hate legislation passes final vote in the House, now moves to Senate | CBC News

The Liberal government's politically contentious new anti-hate bill has passed its final hurdle in the House of Commons and will now go to the Senate.

CBC

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The Alchemist 1d ago

Maybe I am missing something. The NDP has supported the LGBTQ community and our rights for a long time, long before the Liberals. They were really responsive and helpful. They even had an MP focused on LGBTQ issues who was halfway across the country, but helped me and was responsive.
That kind of care and thoughtfulness and willingness is needed not only in our society, but to help the NDP rebound.
They are starting to burn years of good work to the ground.

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RantingCanuck 1d ago

@alchemistsstudio

My understanding of Bill C-9 was that while it removes the religious exemption from hate speech laws (and the bloc pushing for that change is a good thing) it also makes it illegal to protest events held at religious institutions.

For example: Event's have been held at synagogue's in Toronto that sell (or at least encourage the purchasing) of land in Palestine, and those events have been meet with protests.

Bill C-9 would ban those protests and thus provides cover to events that promote hate (as long as it doesn't cross the line into illegal hate speech) as long as they are held at a religious institutions.

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The Alchemist 1d ago

@RantingCanuck

Hopefully the NDP will also take a stand against events/services at religious institutions that preach hate and against LGBTQ rights.

Hopefully this legislation will be expanded to also protect LGBTQ organizations and districts from religious protestors.

LGBTQ people deserve equal treatment. Maybe someday.

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RantingCanuck 1d ago

@alchemistsstudio

Technically the legislation does protect LGBTQ+ venues from religious protesters, and I 100% support that (although I question if it will actually be enforced given our nation's poor history protecting the LGBTQ+ community but that is a different issue)... I just wish the legislation didn't give cover to religious institutions because they should be subject to protest for their actions. Hate groups (anti-LGBTQ+, white supremacists, etc) have historically used churches as cover for their activities and while they won't be able to claim a religious exemption for their speech now, they are better shielded from protest.

A good bill would have removed the religious exemption and prohibited hate motivated protests of any venue used by an identifiable group while specifically exempting protests motivated by opposition to hateful practices.

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The Alchemist

@RantingCanuck I agree with you. Unfortunately progress is always slow and very incremental in regards to LGBTQ/human rights. Hopefully one day religion will no longer allowed to be a shield for hate, discrimination and violence. Thanks for sharing more information with me.