Canada’s Combatting Hate Act repeals a religious-text defense in certain hate speech cases, warning Americans how quickly “anti-hate” laws can become weapons against biblical truth, free speech, and religious liberty.
A disturbing new law passed by the Canadian Parliament has dramatically expanded the government’s power to police speech, especially as it relates to sexuality and gender ideology.
Under the banner of somehow making sure everyone is “nice” and no protected class ever feels “unsafe,” Canadian officials have grown increasingly willing to treat historic Christian teaching as dangerous and potentially criminal. Christians who refuse to affirm modern LGBTQ ideology are discovering that the state no longer views them as participants in a democratic society but as obstacles to social progress.
And now our “nice” neighbors in the Great White North are proving how quickly these policies can take root.
Canada’s controversial Combatting Hate Act, which received royal assent on June 18 and will take effect on July 18, removes the longstanding protection allowing the sincere use of religious texts to be used as an exception under the country’s hate speech laws. In Canada, a growing cadre of hate speech laws can be applied against anyone deemed to have promoted hatred or simply made a member of a protected class feel “unsafe” as a result of words, tone, or the use of certain symbols.
After the Liberal Party, the Bloc Québécois, and the New Democratic Party rejected a last-minute effort by Green Party MP Elizabeth May and Conservatives to stop the bill, lawmakers voted to accept the Senate’s only amendment to the law, adding the noose to the list of hate-related symbols banned from public display. The measure also creates new protected identities and new indictable criminal offenses for intimidating or obstructing people outside places of worship and facilities.
Despite the latter inclusion of what is ostensibly a protection for Christian churches, many believe that the law, which is broad and vague and therefore ripe for subjective interpretation, will soon lead to government officials targeting and punishing Christians who publicly uphold biblical teaching on sexuality and gender.
That’s not hyperbole or a conspiracy theory. Canada already has a proven record in treating longstanding Christian doctrine as harmful dissent against LGBTQ ideology.
The Warning Signs Impossible to Ignore
All this comes amid the backdrop of an increasingly secular Canadian government steadily moving away from its historic devotion to free expression and religious liberty.
During the COVID-19 era, several pastors were arrested and jailed for defying state restrictions on worship services, revealing just how quickly government authorities were willing to exercise sweeping power over religious communities.
Those persecuted included Pastor Artur Pawlowski, who was arrested numerous times for refusing to close his church during COVID; he later spent 78 days in jail before being convicted of “mischief” for giving a 17-minute sermon to the Freedom Convoy truckers protesting COVID vaccine mandates. Meanwhile, Christians have been arrested for handing out Bibles on the street or for protesting transgender bathroom policies.
Although many of those cases were later dismissed or overturned by judges for being unconstitutional, the fact that Canada’s Parliament has now taken steps to officially remove religious protections against so-called “hate speech” is raising red flags among Christian communities and free speech advocates.
Under the Combatting Hate Act, Christians could be prosecuted even if he or she “expressed or attempted to establish by an argument an opinion on a religious subject or an opinion based on a belief in a religious text.”
As soon as government starts redefining dissent as harmful, the line between protecting people and suppressing free speech and religious liberty vanishes.
Canadian officials increasingly treat opposition to LGBTQ ideology not as a theological conviction deserving protection but as discrimination warranting punishment. For this reason, many Christians in Canada already remain silent about biblical teaching outside of church and their own Christian circles rather than risk professional, legal, and social consequences.
This should concern every person who values freedom — even those who disagree with Christian doctrine.
A free society does not require universal agreement. It protects citizens’ right to express deeply held beliefs without fear of government retaliation. The moment the state gains authority to decide which moral or theological positions are acceptable in public life, freedom itself begins to erode.
Western democracies rest on the belief that true liberty includes the freedom to hold unpopular views. Historically, Christians have defended this principle, not merely for themselves but for everyone. Ironically, many of the same societies that once championed diversity and tolerance are now pressing for ideological conformity on issues of sexuality and gender, as well as abortion and other ideas and activities championed by secularists.
The warning signs are no longer subtle. In Finland, Christian Member of Parliament Päivi Räsänen and Lutheran Bishop Juhana Pohjola were prosecuted and convicted for publicly affirming biblical teaching and historic church doctrine on marriage and sexuality. The case is just one of many clear examples where European governments are using “hate speech” frameworks to criminalize traditional Christianity.
America Is Not Immune
Americans should not assume this could never happen here. Although the United States has stronger constitutional protections than Canada and Europe, Christians in the U.S., particularly blue states, have been harassed, arrested, sued,fired, and even banned from adopting or fostering children for refusing to embrace LGBTQ beliefs and language.
And the U.S. government under progressive leadership didn’t see the First Amendment as a hurdle to passing a measure similar to Canada’s Combatting Hate Act. For example, the proposed Equality Act, pushed in Congress by progressive Democrats, sought to add sexual orientation and gender identity to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and other existing civil rights laws, effectively making homosexuality, transgenderism, and other LGBTQIA+ identities federally protected classes. It also sought to expand the definition of “public accommodations” in the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to include “nearly every entity that provides goods, services, or programs,” including churches.
The Equality Act was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives in 2021but stalled in the Senate; it was reintroduced in April 2025 by Rep. Mark Takano, D-Calif., but remains in committee. There’s little doubt that future political shifts giving power back to progressives, there’s little doubt that the bill would be a high legislative priority.
If it ever does become law, the Equality Act would effectively elevate sexual orientation and gender identity protections above conscience rights, affecting all Christian schools, ministries, and churches that hold biblical positions on sexuality and gender.
State-level efforts to make adherents to LGBTQ ideology a protected class has already passed in several states, including Virginia. Although no one has yet to be prosecuted under the law, its passage did embolden the Virginia Department of Education to enact model policies that, among other things, required teachers to use the preferred names and pronouns of transgender-identifying students. Soon thereafter, several Christian public school teachers who spoke out or failed to comply were suspended or fired, including Tanner Cross and Peter Vlaming.
This is not fearmongering. It is a recognition of observable political and cultural patterns.
For years, progressive activists have argued that Christians can continue believing whatever they want privately, so long as those beliefs do not influence public conduct, business, counseling, education, or someone else’s beliefs. But faith confined entirely to private thought is not genuine religious liberty. Christianity is not simply an internal belief system. It shapes how believers live, speak, teach, worship, parent, counsel, and serve society.
When governments declare that religious beliefs must give way whenever they clash with prevailing ideological currents, the idea of freedom of religion becomes nothing but freedom of private opinion.
Christians should recognize that such statutes rarely remain narrowly applied. History demonstrates that governments seldom surrender newly acquired powers over speech and conscience. The parameters keep expanding. What was once protected dissent may soon be punished.
Today, the issue centers largely on sexuality and gender ideology. Tomorrow, it could involve other moral, political, or theological questions. The precedent matters.
The Fight Is About More Than One Issue
The deeper issue at stake is whether truth itself can still be debated freely in democratic societies.
Christians believe biblical teachings about marriage and sexuality are not hateful because they are rooted in God’s design for human flourishing. Others reject that claim entirely. In a free society, both sides should retain the ability to argue their positions publicly without fear of government punishment. The answer to disagreement is debate and persuasion, not coercion and retribution.
Canada now appears fully headed in the opposite direction. By expanding “hate speech” schemes to encompass traditional Christian teaching, the result will not be greater tolerance. It will be ideological enforcement masquerading as compassion.
Americans should pay close attention. The cultural and legal battles unfolding in Canada today mirror the battles already taking place in the United States. Despite a decade of Supreme Court rulings affirming the rights of Christians to exercise their religious liberty rights like anyone else, the secularists are still demanding that Christians deny their faith if they want to participate in the public square.
Christians must stand firm for biblical truth — even if the cost is great. Religious liberty does not disappear all at once. It erodes gradually, one compromise, one silencing, one lawsuit, one regulation, one prosecution at a time.
Canada is in big trouble, and Americans should pray for Christians living there as this law takes effect. But we must also work to avoid their fate by speaking biblical truth and consciously defending religious liberty in our daily lives, work, and civic engagement. Otherwise, we too may one day wake up to suddenly discover those freedoms are gone for good.
When truth is pushed behind bars, faithful voices must keep the light shining. If this article helped you see today’s fight for free speech and religious liberty through a biblical worldview, please consider supporting the Standing for Freedom Center’s work today.
