Topic
Hate Crime
445 published works
Religion Clause
Canada Enacts New Hate Crime Law
The Canadian Parliament's Bill C-9, the Combatting Hate Act (full text), received Royal Assent on June 18. It comes into force on July 18. The Act provides in part: (2.2) Everyone commits…
JURIST
Canada rights groups denounce new hate crime law for potential abuses
A coalition of over 60 Canadian rights groups denounced on Friday the rushed enactment of the Combatting Hate Act in Parliament. The groups criticized the law for its vagueness and…
JURIST
Canada parliament adopts new hate crime bill amid speech and religious freedom concerns
The upper house of the Canadian parliament on Thursday adopted the Combatting Hate Act, by a vote of 45-13. The Senate adopted a last-minute amendment to outlaw the display of…
Michael Geist Blog
Why Mark Carney’s Antisemitism Speech Did Not Meet the Moment
For more than two and a half years, antisemitism in Canada has moved from the margins to a daily feature of Jewish life. Synagogues have been shot at, including several…
Legal Futures Blog
The overlooked hate crime reform in Crime & Policing Act
Guest post by Craig Smith, lecturer in law at the University of SalfordSmith: Framework is not fully coherentRecent reforms introduced by the Crime and Policing Act 2026 mark a significant…
Michael Geist
Acting on Antisemitism: If This Was Always Possible, Why Didn’t It Happen Sooner?
Earlier this month, I appeared on CBC’s The Current to discuss the escalation of antisemitic violence in Canada following my Globe op-ed and PROC committee appearance. The host asked me…
JURIST
Canada parliament’s push to criminalize hate crimes sparks free-speech concerns
The Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights of Canada’s House of Commons ended the debate on the Combating Hate Act on Wednesday. Several groups criticized the push for passage,…
Michael Geist
Words Are Not Enough: Countering Relentless Antisemitic Violence in Canada With Action
On a hot August day nearly 32 years ago, I was married at the Shaarei Shomayim synagogue in Toronto. My Globe and Mail op-ed notes that I leafed through my…
The Justice Gap
Courts downplayed racism of 2024 riots treating far right violence as ‘mindless thuggery’, says IRR study
By Jon Robins
The police and courts downplayed racist violence in the wake of the Southport killings treating it as ‘mindless thuggery’, according to a new report by the Institute of Race Relations…
A Lawyer Writes
Outrage and optimism
The attorney general, on an official visit to Australia, has expressed the government’s outrage at the terrorist attack on Jews celebrating the festival of Hanukkah at Bondi beach in December,…