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"All sexual acts are not equal," Cools asserted. "I believe in justice for all...but I also understand that the essential requirement of life itself is that men mate with women." Better watch it Senator Cools, you may have just committed a hate crime.
University of Western Ontario professor Robert Martin has described Canada as "a totalitarian theocracy." He went on to argue that Canada is "ruled today by what I would described as a secular state religion (of political correctness). Anything that is regarded as heresy or blasphemy is not tolerated."
Svend Robinson and other promoters of C-250 played a crude game of doublespeak in arguing for the legislation. Their explanations are reducible to the claim that C-250 will never be used to criminalize Christian speech--except when such speech needs to be criminalized. Some have described Christians as "paranoid" in responding to the bill. That's not the way Jason Kenney, a Roman Catholic MP from Calgary sees the situation. "This isn't at all a hysterical reaction. It's a completely reasonable fear, given the trends in the courts and human rights commissions. In Owens, a Saskatchewan judge ruled that parts of the Bible can constitute hate speech against gays. In the Surrey School Board case, they were ordered to put gay material into a Grade 1 class."
Alan Borovoy, general counsel to the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, once described Canada as "a pleasantly authoritarian country." Columnist John Leo of U.S. News and World Report, agrees with Borovoy's description.
As Leo explains, "Since Canada has no First Amendment, anti-bias laws generally trump free speech and freedom of religion. A recent flurry of cases has mostly gone against free expression." Leo went on to suggest that parents might be held legally liable for a child who says something irritating about homosexuals to a classmate in school. Religious groups could quickly get in trouble for teaching certain biblical passages or defending historic church doctrines.
The pattern of criminalizing speech about homosexuals is spreading across liberal societies. In Sweden, pastors are explicitly warned that any sermons critical of homosexuality can lead to criminal charges. The same logic is spreading through the courts and legislatures of many European countries--and now has jumped the Atlantic to Canada.
The truly threatening character of the Canadian legislation is further demonstrated in the fact that police do not have to charge persons with breaking a law. Any Canadian citizen can file a complaint against any other citizen, resulting in charges. At that point, the defendant is simply left to the dangerous whims of the liberal judiciary and governmental human rights commissions. The potential legal costs would alone intimidate some persons from talking about homosexuality.
The most important part of the newly-revised criminal code reads: "Every one who, by communicating statements, other than in private conversation, willfully promotes hatred against any identifiable group is guilty of . . . an indictable offense and is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years."
During a recent debate, the Canadian attorney general refused to comment on whether or not the Bible is, in itself, hate speech. That matter, we are now warned, will be left for the courts to determined.
We are fooling ourselves if we believe this threat to religious liberty will not cross our border. This same logic is already accepted by many law professors and judges in the United States. The passage of C-250 is a warning to us all. When free speech is denied and the preachers are told what they can and cannot say, religious liberty is effectively dead.
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