Canadian Hate Laws.

Where they have burned books, they will end in
burning human beings.- Heinrich Heine (1797-1856)

The Authority for Canadian Hate Laws

• Canadian Human Rights Act

  • Section 13 is used to attack websites which promote hate as defined in this section;

• Canadian Criminal Code
  
  
  • Section 318 - Every one who advocates or promotes genocide is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years.

  • Section 319 - Every one who, by communicating statements in any public place, incites hatred against any identifiable group where such incitement is likely to lead to a breach of the peace is guilty of ........

  • Section 320 - A judge who is satisfied by information on oath that there are reasonable grounds for believing that any publication, copies of which are kept for sale or distribution in premises within the jurisdiction of the court, is hate propaganda shall issue a warrant under his hand authorizing seizure of the copies.

Canadian Hate Laws have Invited Controversy

Canadian hate laws have invited controversy since their inception because there is a fine line between freedom of speech, which is honoured by Canada, and Canada's desire to treat all identifiable groups fairly and promote in those groups a sense of their security and safety in the Canadian community.

On September 2, 2009 the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal ruled that Section 13, of the hate speech law, violates the Charter right to free expression because it carries the threat of punitive fines.

This decision sent shock waves throughout Canada because the decision by Tribunal member Athanasios Hadjis leaves several hate speech cases in limbo, and appears to strip the Canadian Human Rights Commission of its controversial legal mandate to pursue hate on the Internet, which it has strenuously defended against complaints of censorship.

It also marks the first major failure of Section 13(1) of the Canadian Human Rights Act, an anti-hate law that was conceived in the 1960s to target racist telephone hot lines, then expanded in 2001 to the include the entire Internet, and for the last decade used almost exclusively by one complainant, activist Ottawa lawyer Richard Warman.

This decision will be appealed in federal court in 2010. More on this...

Links to More Information

The Civil Rights Page of Canadian Law site

Canadian Human Rights Act

Canadian Criminal Code

The Religious Tolerance Website

Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA)