Religious exception | “I no longer have confidence,” says Yves-François Blanchet about the Liberals

The agreement between the parties led to the adoption, in parliamentary committee, of an amendment to the government’s Bill C-9, which aims to criminalize the act of obstructing access to a place of worship.

Since this amendment on the abandonment of the religious exception was ratified in December, the committee studying C-9 has put aside the article by article study of the legislative document. The Liberals then agreed to a request from the Conservatives to instead move forward with another bill, C-14.

After this break, the clause-by-clause study of C-9 was to resume on Monday, but the committee meeting was canceled at the last minute.

The same day, CBC reported that there were talks between Liberals and Conservatives to allow the adoption of this bill. However, Pierre Poilievre’s troops vigorously oppose the amendment on the religious exception since they believe that it violates freedom of religion.

According to Mr. Blanchet, the Liberals go from procrastination to procrastination. “I no longer have confidence,” summarized the Bloc leader on Tuesday.

“We are really on the verge of taking back our own bill on the end of the religious exception, of re-submitting it and saying ‘OK, you have not been reliable, Quebecers will take note that you have not been reliable and we will act’,” he added.

The religious exception is this provision of the Criminal Code which allows a person accused of fomenting hatred to be acquitted because he or she has, “in good faith, expressed an opinion on a religious subject or an opinion based on a religious text to which [elle] believes, or has attempted to establish its merits by argument.”

The Minister of Justice, Sean Fraser, said he was prepared, Tuesday morning, to respond to the Conservatives’ fears. “We would be prepared to indicate textually in the bill that the voluntary promotion of hatred does not include the reading of religious texts or the ordinary practice of faith,” he said on his way to the weekly meeting of the council of ministers.

However, according to him, the Conservatives seem to want to oppose C-9 tooth and nail and resume using obstruction tactics to delay the study of the bill.

The Conservative parliamentary leader, Andrew Scheer, indicated in a press scrum that he had regular discussions with his Liberal counterpart, Steven MacKinnon, about several bills, including C-9.

However, he seemed reluctant to believe that a compromise was possible on the question of religious exception.

However, he said he was open to adopting a version of C-9 which would only deal with the criminalization of obstructing access to a place of worship.

With information from Michel Saba, The Canadian Press