Bill C-9 will criminalize flags, memes and protests: Free Speech Union of Canada
“Canadians may find themselves unable to criticize protected ideologies,” warned Free Speech Union of Canada executive director Lisa Bildy during a Senate hearing.
A bill being pushed through Parliament will have a chilling effect on freedom of expression, warned a civil liberties group during a committee hearing on Wednesday.
Lisa Bildy, executive director of the Free Speech Union of Canada, cautioned that criminalizing symbols is “an extraordinary step.”
Bill C-9, known as the Combatting Hate Act, includes “no statutory list of prohibited symbols,” with the Liberal government instead only offering a definition depending on “associations with whatever groups the minister of public safety has placed on a terrorist list.”
By doing so, the “scope of criminalized expression” becomes “inherently political,” Bildy told the Senate Standing Committee Human Rights.
Flags like Canada's historic Red Ensign “are treated as suspect by some, like the Canadian Anti-Hate Network,” she said, noting that “most Canadians” are displaying these symbols “out of pride, not hate.”
Under the Liberals' legislation, such flags “could become criminalized by association with nationalist groups that could be politically targeted by the government of the day,” she added.
Instead, “criminal offences must be clear, objective and narrowly tailored,” Bildy stated.
“Canadians may find themselves unable to criticize protected ideologies in locations where their protest would have the most impact and relevance.”
The new legislation would also grant the government power to shut down “unpopular protests or political opponents,” she said, noting two-tier enforcement has already been occurring in Canada.
Freedom of expression matters “because it is the most effective check on abuses of power” and “enables the search for truth, even when truth is uncomfortable,” Bildy said.
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COMMENTS
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Bruce Atchison commented 2026-05-29 19:35:15 -0400This is what tyrants do. They stifle all other opinions. Stupid socialists can’t get it. They think the government should run everything. Only when it’s too late will they realize the government is meddling in their private lives.
