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The Government’s Anti-Terrorism Act (3 of 4)
Stronger Laws Against Hate Crimes and Propaganda
October 15, 2001
In support of our Anti-Terrorism Plan, our government introduced today in the
House of Commons the Anti-Terrorism Act – a strong new legislative
package of anti-terrorism measures.
The proposed Anti-Terrorism Act contains measures to:
- identify, prosecute, convict and punish terrorists;
- provide new investigative tools to law enforcement and national
security agencies; and,
- ensure that Canadian values of respect and fairness are preserved,
and the root causes of hatred are addressed, through stronger laws
against hate crimes and propaganda.
This legislative package is in keeping with the actions of our allies. They
are an important element in Canada’s commitment to join its international
partners in confronting and stamping out terrorism around the world.
Following the attack on September 11, the Prime Minister and all Canadians
have called for a renewed commitment to Canadian values of respect, equality,
diversity and fairness and a strong condemnation of hate-motivated violence that
has occurred in Canada and elsewhere against innocent people.
The point has been made repeatedly that this is a campaign against terrorism
and not against any one community, group or faith.
As part of its Anti-Terrorism Act, the Government of Canada is
proposing changes to legislation that address the root causes of hatred,
reaffirm Canadian values and ensure that Canada's renowned respect for justice
and diversity is reinforced. These measures would include:
- Amendments to the Criminal Code that would allow the courts to
order the deletion of publicly available hate propaganda from computer
systems. Individuals who posted the material would be given the
opportunity to convince the court that the material is not hate
propaganda. The provision would apply to hate propaganda that is located
on Canadian computer systems, regardless of where the owner of the
material is located or whether he or she can be identified.
- Criminal Code amendments that would create a new offence of
mischief motivated by bias, prejudice or hate, committed against a place
of religious worship or associated religious property.
- Amendments to the Canadian Human Rights Act to extend the
prohibition against hate messages beyond telephone messages to include
all telecommunications technologies.
The Government of Canada’s Anti-Terrorism Plan has four objectives:
- stop terrorists from getting into Canada and protect Canadians from
terrorist acts;
- bring forward tools to identify, prosecute, convict and punish
terrorists;
- prevent the Canada-US border from being held hostage by terrorists
and impacting on the Canadian economy; and
- work with the international community to bring terrorists to justice and
address the root causes of such hatred.
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