Articles

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

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

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

→en français The Right Honourable Mark Carney Prime Minister of Canada Office of the Prime Minister 80 Wellington Street Ottawa, ON K1A 0A2 Dear Prime Minister, The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada (The EFC) is very concerned about the rise in hate crimes targeting religious groups. We are deeply troubled by the alarming increase in antisemitism in Canada. Jews are and have consistently been among the most frequent targets of hate crimes in Canada, and the number of antisemit