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.