Hon. Duncan Wilson: Thank you for being here today.

Can you speak to the importance of the new hate crime provision included in Bill C-9 and the impact that this will have in appropriately recognizing hate crimes when they occur, which will standardize the national hate crime definition and lead to more accurate data collection on police-reported hate crimes?

Hon. Sean Fraser, P.C., M.P., Minister of Justice, Attorney General of Canada and Minister responsible for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency: Yes. This is a core piece of this bill, and it is very important.

There is a glaring gap in Canada’s criminal laws that I hope to fill. I believe it’s more morally culpable for a person to commit, for example, an assault or a robbery against a victim not just at random but because of their identity.

The reason I believe it’s more morally culpable, in addition to being mean-spirited and awful, is that the consequences of that crime reverberate through the entirety of a community.

This was informed by a conversation I had early on with Professor Irwin Cotler, one of my predecessors in this job, who convinced me that we need to recognize the harm that an entire community lives with when they know their community members are subjected to hate.

We will have the opportunity when courts recognize the hate motivation behind a crime to better measure the prevalence of these crimes because, as you would well know, many of the motivations behind common assault, robbery and other crimes are not necessarily recorded in an organized way.

By measuring the prevalence of hate crimes that result in convictions as a result of their motivation to target a particular person based on their identity, we’ll be better able to shape policies outside of the Criminal Code, informed by the consequences that are better measured as a result of court decisions that will come in the future.

Senator Wilson: Thank you. My supplemental relates to Senator Dalphond’s original question, but I wanted to build on that.

Are you concerned that, should the provisions identified in Bill C-9 pass into law, they will have a chilling effect on freedom of expression, freedom of religion and the right to protest in terms of not the content maybe but how people feel about it?

Mr. Fraser: I don’t personally have that concern, but I don’t want to diminish the very real feeling that communities are experiencing as a result of the public conversation that has emerged around this.

My intent from the beginning, which I believe is specifically captured in the language in the bill that has come to the Senate from the House of Commons, is that it treats hate crimes more seriously and offers protection to communities of faith, while at the same time very specifically recognizes that reading scripture, attending your services and practising your faith does not reach the high standard required under the Criminal Code to be recognized as a hate crime.

We want people to be able to freely participate in their communities of faith; we believe that is good and serves the interests of Canada. It is a basic freedom to which Canadians are entitled under the Charter. That is the reason we included it.