The Liberal government’s plan, at the behest of the Bloc Québécois, to remove the religious faith exemption from the Criminal Code prohibition on hate speech ran into unexpected and formidable opposition this week. A House committee meeting was abruptly cancelled on Thursday, leaving the future of the amendment, and the Liberals’ hate speech bill itself, in question.

Hate speech restrictions inherently sit uneasily with constitutional free speech rights, so Canada’s hate speech laws currently have some safeguards. The provincial attorney general must authorize a prosecution. The law cannot be used to limit religious liberty.

The background to the current Bloc proposal is that Quebec is going through a period of anxiety about the public face of Islam in the province. The provincial govern

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