Hon. Wanda Thomas Bernard: Honourable senators, I rise to speak to Bill C-9, the combatting hate act. I will start by asking you to join me for a walk. You have just had dinner with your family. After dinner, you go for a walk alone in your neighbourhood. You are walking down the street at dusk, and a group of young men pass you in a pickup truck. They yell profanities at you and tell you to go back to Africa where you belong. You look at the vehicle as it drives away, and there is a noose hanging from the back of their pickup truck.

Honourable colleagues, you have now walked in the shoes of many Black people in Canada, including mine, because the story I have just shared with you happened to me in a neighbourhood where I used to live — and that I left because of racism I experienced there.

As Deputy Chair of the Standing Senate Committee on Human Rights, I urge my colleagues to recognize the evidence heard from witnesses who recommend adding the noose to the list of hate symbols because it represents anti-Black violence. The noose is a current, relevant symbol of White supremacy that is used to intimidate and invoke fear in Black people. Last week alone, we heard about two White nationalist demonstrations in the news, one in Bedford, Nova Scotia, and one in Shawinigan, Quebec. The relevance of adding the symbol, a tool of White supremacist intimidation, is very clear.

In testimony before both House and Senate committees that studied the bill, advocates established that the proposed amendment to include the noose inherently aligns with the core purpose of Bill C-9 while fully satisfying the strict Criminal Code criteria of the Department of Justice, or DOJ. Under the DOJ’s freedom of expression framework, which requires a prohibited symbol to be clearly identifiable, actively harmful and of low value from a freedom of expression perspective — meaning public discourse — the noose stands as an undeniable, unambiguous emblem of anti-Black racial terror.

To align with the purpose of the bill, specifically, to address anti-Black racism and eliminate profound disparities in federal hate crime legislation, witnesses and civil rights advocates reviewing Bill C-9 have proposed structured, explicit amendments to modify section 319 of the Criminal Code.

Leading civil rights advocates and community organizations argue that omitting the noose as a prohibited hate symbol ignores the terror, harm and trauma inflicted on Black Canadians, leaving communities completely unprotected and stripped of their fundamental right to societal safety.

The UN International Decade for People of African Descent includes a pillar of justice, and one of their recommendations is as follows:

Adopting effective and appropriate measures, including legal measures as appropriate, to combat all acts of racism, in particular the dissemination of ideas based on racial superiority or hatred, incitement to racial hatred, violence or incitement to racial violence, as well as racist propaganda activities and participation in racist organizations. . . .

The Canadian government signed on to the decade in 2018, and this is an opportunity to fulfill the commitment made to address anti-Black racism in Canada.

The Black Opportunity Fund testified and filed formal briefs with the Human Rights Committee, emphasizing that, while lynching is often decoupled from Canadian history, the noose remains an active weapon of domestic terror.

CEO Craig Wellington said:

We are not asking this committee to silence difficult ideas. We are not asking you to shield Canadians from discomfort or important debate; however, there is a line between discourse that provokes thought and symbols that provoke terror. The noose is not a position in a debate. It is not an argument. It is a promise of violence. It is a threat. It is a tool that is being used to commit violence and acts of racial terror.

In its formal submission, the Black-Manitobans Chamber of Commerce, led by its president and founder, Deborah-Zita Somakoko, demonstrated that omitting these symbols invalidates the lived realities and safety of Black Canadians. Ms. Somakoko highlights that for Black entrepreneurs, workers and communities, the noose is a contemporary tool of severe racial trauma used to enforce racial hierarchies. Leaving this symbol unbanned compromises workplace safety and forces Black Canadians to navigate public and professional spheres under the weight of hypervigilance.

We heard about many experiences in committee. One story that stands out to me is one that a witness shared about her 15‑year-old son living in Winnipeg, Manitoba. He was the only Black student on his sports team. A teammate placed a noose in his backpack. After practice one day, his teammates invited him to join them. They beat him up and videotaped the assault. The symbol of the noose, colleagues, is not just a historical reference. It is a current symbol of hate and threat of violence.

Honourable colleagues, I have named a few recent examples of anti-Black hate involving the noose in Canada. There are many more. They are all threats of violence that are intended to invoke fear. Adopting this exact amendment is not a matter of legislative housekeeping. It is an urgent human rights imperative necessary to instate equal protection, uphold human dignity and fulfill the Crown’s basic obligation to protect all Canadians from racial discrimination.

Motion in Amendment Adopted

Hon. Wanda Thomas Bernard: Therefore, honourable senators, in amendment, I move:

That Bill C-9 be not now read a third time, but that it be amended in clause 4, on page 2, by replacing lines 4 and 5 with the following:

“(b) the Nazi Hakenkreuz, the Nazi double Sig-Rune, also known as the SS bolts, or a noose; or”.

Some Hon. Senators: Hear, hear.

Hon. Kristopher Wells: Will Senator Bernard take a question?

Senator Bernard: Yes.

The Hon. the Speaker pro tempore: Senator Wells, because Senator Bernard moved the motion, her speaking time has expired. There is no place for questions, but, with leave, you could ask a question.

Is leave granted, senators?

Hon. Senators: Agreed.

Senator K. Wells: Thank you, colleagues.

Senator Bernard, first, thank you for your long-standing advocacy on behalf of Black Canadians and for championing this amendment.

As I previously expressed and as confirmed yesterday by the Government Representative in the Senate, the government is in agreement with this amendment, and I will be voting in favour of it.

The use of the noose as a symbol to intimidate and oppress Black Canadians is vile and should be seriously considered by this chamber. It carries a specific history of racial terror, directed at Black Canadians and Black communities across this hemisphere.

Personally, I’m deeply concerned by rising levels of hate directed toward Black communities and by some of the stories witnesses have brought forward to the Human Rights Committee, which you’ve shared.

My question to you is this: Can you confirm to this chamber that the noose as a hate symbol meets the three legislative criteria — one, it wilfully promotes hatred; two, it is targeted toward an identifiable group; and three, it is done in a public space — for its inclusion?

Senator Bernard: Thank you, Senator K. Wells, for your question, your work and your comments.

With regard to the first point, “wilfully promotes hatred,” I would say that community organizations like the Black Opportunity Fund, argue that a noose is not an ambiguous or benign historical fact; it is a literal tool of execution.

With regard to your second point, “targeted toward an identifiable group,” in modern contexts, when an individual manufactures or introduces a noose into a specific environment, such as a workplace, school or community, it is done with the clear, wilful purpose of inciting terror rather than as a causal or accidental expression.

With regard to racial terror, the noose is universally recognized as a primary symbol of White supremacy, anti-Black racism and the history of lynching in North America, including here in Canada.

With regard to identifiable harm, its deployment directly targets an identifiable group, specifically Black Canadians, protected under the Criminal Code. Submissions that we received emphasized that its psychological impact is equivalent to the Nazi symbols already targeted by Bill C-9.

With regard to the third point, “done in a public space,” when we think about real-world proliferation, advocacy briefs point to documented, high-profile Canadian incidents where nooses were intentionally placed in public or semi-public spaces to maximize visibility and intimidation, and I shared some of those examples in my speech.

With regard to site-specific contexts, notable examples presented to us at committee include nooses found at Toronto construction sites, such as the Michael Garron Hospital and the Eglinton Crosstown LRT, and hospital operating rooms, demonstrating that these acts are executed in public workspaces to terrorize entire communities.

The Hon. the Speaker pro tempore: Is it your pleasure, honourable senators, to adopt the motion in amendment?

Hon. Senators: Agreed.