Hon. Kristopher Wells: Minister, as of 2024, the most recent data we have from Statistics Canada indicates that the number of police-reported hate crimes has increased six years in a row, up an exponential 169% since 2018. Sadly, hate appears to be on the rise in Canada. Among the most frequent victims of police-reported hate crimes are members of the Jewish, Black and 2SLGBTQI+ communities. Hate crimes are message crimes. They say to every member of a community that they are at risk of violence and victimization. Over the course of the last two parliaments, the government has attempted to take action to address this disturbing trend through legislation designed to strengthen Canada’s hate-crime laws.

Minister, with the introduction of Bill C-9, we are close to finally having the urgently needed tools to combat this rising tide of hate.

My question to you is this: Is your government committed to working with all parties and groups as well as stakeholders to get this important bill passed?

Hon. Sean Fraser, P.C., M.P., Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada and Minister responsible for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency: Certainly. The short answer to your question is yes, we are committed to working across party lines and with participants in Parliament and both chambers to advance these important laws.

Specifically, you pointed out there were different groups who were disproportionately being targeted by hate crimes in this country. You mentioned the Jewish community, the LGBTQ2IA+ community and the Black community. This bill started out as a campaign commitment that was targeting hate directed toward religious communities. Very quickly, when we started to engage, we realized that hate is not limited to the doorsteps of our religious institutions. For that reason, as a result of that feedback, we decided to include a stand-alone crime of hate that would layer on top of all other crimes that are motivated by hate in this country.

Through the committee process to date, there are potential amendments that I understand will be coming on things like the definition of hate we’ve used, the role of the consent of the Attorney General in a given province and a series of other measures that could potentially inform how this bill could be strengthened.

We are willing to consider those amendments in good faith. We do not wish to be dogmatic about this process. My view is that if we can actually send a signal to Canadians that there is multi-partisan cooperation, there is belief across party lines from different parts of the country and that there is a path forward on hate, it is only going to strengthen the resolve not just of governments but of Canadians to combat hate in their communities. I welcome the feedback, regardless of which group you’re affiliated with, of senators who may wish to inform this important bill.