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The Senate made one change to Bill C-9 and passed it on June 4, 2026. The Senate did not pass any amendments to help clarify and protect religious expression. The bill has been sent back to the House of Commons for a vote on the change. Bill C-9 has passed in the Senate. What’s next? The Senate amended Bill C-9 by adding the noose to the list of symbols in the offence of promoting hatred through the use of symbols. The bill was then passed by the Senate. A bill has to pass wi

Many Christians are concerned about the impact of a proposed hate crimes bill on religious expression. Bill C-9 has passed in the House of Commons and is moving through the Senate. A Senate committee is now studying the bill and hearing from witnesses. Would you pray for us? The EFC is slated to appear before the Senate committee on Thursday afternoon. Please pray for wisdom, discernment and peace for the EFC director of public policy Julia Beazley. Pray the senators will be

Traduit de l'anglais par François Godbout Projet de loi sur les crimes haineux : Le projet de loi C-9, qui crée de nouvelles infractions liées aux crimes haineux, est en cours d’examen à la Chambre des communes au moment de la publication. Le projet de loi a été modifié en commission afin de supprimer la défense fondée sur les croyances religieuses pour l’infraction de promotion intentionnelle prévue dans le Code criminel. Il s’agit d’une protection importante pour l’expressi

Bill C-9, the Combatting Hate Act, is now in the Senate. What’s different about the Senate and how can we engage? Just to recap, the Jewish community has been asking for changes to criminal law in the face of an alarming rise in antisemitism. Bill C-9 defines hatred and creates new criminal offences to protect access to religious and cultural sites and services. While Bill C-9 was being reviewed by the House of Commons Justice Committee, a change was passed to remove the reli

The Justice Committee’s changes to Bill C-9 were tabled in the House of Commons today. The next step will be one day of debate and votes on the committee’s changes on Monday, March 23. This is the second last step the bill goes through in the House of Commons. New changes to the bill can be proposed and voted on at this stage, although the time to do so will be very short. We’d like to focus on three points about the Justice Committee’s changes. 1. The committee tightened the

[Note: the motion to limit debate on Bill C-9 was passed on March 10, 2026] The government has given notice of a motion to close the debate on Bill C-9, the hate crimes bill. (See the full text of the motion, below.) On Monday, March 9, the House of Commons will debate and vote on a motion that would stop further debate on changes to Bill C-9. The motion directs the Justice Committee to vote on changes that have already been proposed without further debate. According to the m

Traduit de l'anglais par François Godbout Un projet de loi fédéral visant à lutter contre les menaces et les violences antireligieuses a été amendé afin de supprimer une protection importante pour les groupes religieux minoritaires. L'AÉC estime que cette protection ne devrait pas être supprimée et demande aux Canadiens concernés de contacter leurs députés. Le projet de loi C-9, intitulé Loi contre la haine, a été présenté en septembre. Il propose des modifications au Code cr

In recent weeks, there has been much controversy about Bill C-9, a new hate crimes bill introduced primarily at the request of Jewish communities after an alarming increase of antisemitism in Canada. Of particular concern is a possible change to the bill that would remove an existing protection for religious expression. Here is what's happening with Bill C-9, the possible removal of the good faith religious belief defence, and what you can do. What’s happening? The House of C

Traduit de l'anglais par François Godbout Statut d'organisme de bienfaisance : Le ministre des Finances nous a confirmé que le gouvernement « n'envisage pas de modifier la Loi de l'impôt sur le revenu afin de supprimer la promotion de la religion comme objectif de bienfaisance admissible, ni n'élabore activement de politique à ce sujet ». Un courriel du ministère des Finances à l’AÉC a fait écho à ce message. TheEFC.ca/CharitableStatus Nouveau projet de loi sur les crimes hai

In a parliamentary Justice Committee meeting in December on Bill C-9, MP Marc Miller directed a question to Derek Ross from the Christian Legal Fellowship. MP Miller said: "I want to dig in a little bit to the concept of ‘good faith,’ Mr. Ross. In Leviticus, Deuteronomy, Romans… there’s other passages… there is clear hatred towards, for example, homosexuals. I don’t understand how the concept of ‘good faith’ can be invoked if someone were, literally invoking a passage from, i

Bill C-9 was introduced in the House of Commons on September 19, 2025. It has now passed in the Senate and will become law. The bill defines hatred and creates four new offences in the Criminal Code. It also removes the requirement that the Attorney General consent to laying charges for hate propaganda offences. Recent history On December 9, 2025, the Justice Committee voted to amend Bill C-9 so that it removes the religious belief defence from the hate speech provisions in

With any quick Google search, Canadians of any age can access sexually explicit material. Simple, often innocent search terms can bring up websites with sexually explicit content, much of it violent and dehumanizing. It is extremely easy to access in Canada, and we are seeing the devastating consequences of this on our population, especially children and youth. From March to June 2024, the standing parliamentary Committee on Canadian Heritage undertook a study on the harms

The EFC submitted a brief to the Heritage Committee in its study of online illegal sexually explicit material. The EFC called attention to the need to protect Canadians, particularly children and youth, from the range of harms associated with illegal content online. Our brief discussed how these images can have significant and harmful impacts on Canadian victims and viewers. There are devastating, lifelong consequences for those whose images are uploaded and distributed. Ill

Imagine being the parents of a 13-year-old girl who is pressured to send the boy she likes an intimate video of herself. Imagine she discovers the video has been uploaded to pornography sites and viewed hundreds of thousands of times. Imagine she drops out of school and her social circle, becoming fearful, anxious, thinking about ending her life. This isn’t just imagination. The girl’s name is Serena Fleites, and she is just one of many. There are real people in vulnerable mo

The government introduced Bill C-63 on February 26, 2024. The bill has three main sections. The first enacts the Online Harms Act, setting up a new regulatory framework with responsibilities for online platforms and creating a new Digital Safety Commission and a Digital Safety Ombudsperson. This framework is focused on seven categories of online harm: intimate content communicated without consent and content that sexually victimizes a child or revictimizes a survivor, bullies

Le point sur les questions les plus pressantes au Canada Retarder l'entrée en vigueur de l’aide médicale à mourir pour maladie mentale : Un projet de loi a été adopté pour retarder de trois ans, soit jusqu'en mars 2027, l'aide médicale à mourir pour maladie mentale. Le gouvernement a accordé ce sursit parce que plusieurs provinces, territoires et groupes d'experts ont déclaré que le système médical canadien n'était pas prêt pour l'aide médicale à mourir en cas de maladie ment

Articles de fond Mettre fin aux abus dans l'Église. Comment pouvons-nous protéger les personnes que nous aimons et les institutions que nous partageons? Randal Rauser et Bob Stenhouse partagent leur expertise. Repenser la mission mondiale. Les experts en matière d'action sociale chrétienne réfléchissent aux nouvelles opportunités liées à l'évolution des populations, des attitudes et des technologies Cross Connections par David Guretzki Dire la(sa) vérité. Comment Ponce Pilate

This article comes from Read directly: https://www.faithtoday.ca/Magazines/2024-Mar-Apr →en français EFC President David Guretzki suggests Pontius Pilate's words to Jesus demonstrate abuse of power. The phrase "speak my truth" is often used by those who have suffered abuse at the hands of powerful people. There’s something vitally important behind this idea. Speaking out is important because without it abuse continues. Almost all who suffer abuses of power are silenced, usual

The Hon. Arif Virani Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada Dear Minister, We are writing to highlight the recent Ontario Superior Court of Justice decision in CASWLR v. Attorney General of Canada, which found all the provisions of Canada’s prostitution laws to be constitutional. The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada (EFC) acted as an intervener in this case in support of the Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act (PCEPA). We argued that buying sex is

Dear Minister, We’d like to thank you for your service to all Canadians. Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada are important and demanding portfolios. We appreciate the time and commitment they require.  We are grateful that the government is seeking to hold online platforms accountable for hosting and distributing child sexual abuse materials (CSAM) and for the non-consensual distribution of intimate images (NCDII) as part of its planned online harms legislati