OTTAWA (LifeSiteNews) — Pro-life Conservative MPs did not hold back in their negative and dire assessment of the state of affairs in Canada after yesterday’s passing of the Liberal bill criminalizing religious expression and belief when quoting parts of the Bible, including about homosexuality and gender, noting that Canadians’ “freedoms” are at risk.
“The Liberals and Bloc voted to pass Bill C-9 and send it to the Senate. They are voting to remove important safeguards that protect Canadians’ fundamental religious freedoms. These protections matter,” wrote Conservative MP Rachael Thomas on X after Bill C-9 passed.
Thomas warned that Canadians’ “safeguards” when it comes to holding religious beliefs are at risk now, “including quoting their sacred texts, without fear of legal consequences.”
“Stripping away these safeguards and pushing the bill through the House of Commons should concern every Canadian. This is how freedoms are eroded: not all at once, but step by step, bill by bill. Canadians have fought hard for our fundamental freedoms. Conservatives will always stand up for them,” she observed.
As reported by LifeSiteNews, on Wednesday of this week, MPs from the Liberal Party and the Bloc Québécois, in a 186–137 vote, passed Bill C-9, known as the “Combatting Hate Act.” Conservatives, NDP, and Green Party MPs voted against the bill in a rare form of unity among the usually opposing parties.
Conservative MP Larry Brock noted in an X post that Bill C-9 removes a “decades-old safeguard that protects freedom of religion and expression.”
“This change was never properly justified and raises serious constitutional concerns,” he warned.
Brock said that the Liberals under Prime Minister Mark Carney “used parliamentary tactics to ram it through and limit scrutiny.”
“They rejected common-sense proposals to restore protections and ignored concerns from legal experts and faith communities,” he said.
A ‘dark day’ for Canada: Former leader of the Conservative Party
So far, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre has not yet made a statement about Bill C-9’s passage; however, he, like the rest of his MPs, all voted against it.
Former leader of the Conservative Party Andrew Scheer did speak out immediately after the bill’s passage, saying that Bill C-9’s passage was a “dark day” for Canadians’ free speech.
“It’s a dark day for free speech in Canada. Mark Carney’s Liberals managed to get their religious censorship bill through the HoC,” he wrote in a post on X.
“Carney promised to be different, but he’s doing exactly what Justin Trudeau did: Hiding attacks on free speech in so-called ‘public safety’ bills.”
Conservative MP Garnett Genuis had warned that if Bill C-9 passes, “people could be criminally charged just for reading certain passages of scripture.”
“This is exactly what Liberal Heritage Minister Marc Miller already said he thinks SHOULD happen,” he wrote in an X post.
A last-minute effort by the Conservatives to change the wording of the bill failed to pass.
Earlier this week, Liberal MPs forced the bill through the report stage, after earlier, as reported by LifeSiteNews, shutting down all debate on the bill in the committee stage.
In comments sent to LifeSiteNews, Campaign Life Coalition (CLC) blasted the passage of Bill C-9 and called upon “Christians and pro-life advocates to prepare for increasing hostility.”
Conservative MPs have been demanding that a Liberal amendment to the bill, which removes a religious exemption, be rescinded immediately.
As reported by LifeSiteNews, Bill C-9 has been blasted by constitutional experts as allowing empowered police and the government to go after those deemed to have violated a person’s “feelings” in a “hateful” way. The bill was introduced by Justice Minister Sean Fraser last year.
The removal of the religious exemption prompted condemnation from the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, who issued an open letter criticizing the proposed amendment and calling for its repeal.