Case Explained: Jewish groups advocate for new hate crime laws and better police tools to punish perpetrators – Legal Perspective

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This Tuesday, The Canadian Criminal Law Working Group hosted a webinar event outlining our country’s hate crime laws, their deficiencies and lack of enforcement, and why they say the Combating Hate Act (Bill C-9) is essential to help curb the doubling of hate crime incidents in Canada in the first half of the 2020s.

“Bill C-9 can sharpen some of those tools,” said criminal defence lawyer Mark Sandler. “We need either specialized hate prosecutors in all jurisdictions or we need robust training…so that they actually understand what anti-semitism looks like, how it is contemporarily expressed by those who hate us, and that they understand why a deterrent message has to be sent.”

The advocacy group highlighted that the recent rise of hate in Canada has been directly tied to antisemitism, especially after October 7.

Last month, a Winnipeg synagogue had a bomb scare, after the building was graffitied with swastikas and hate messages. Last year, in Montreal, a Jewish man was beaten in front of his children. Other Jews were assaulted by a woman who threw a container of liquid that smelled like urine at them while marching in the city’s Pride parade, where Jewish groups were initially uninvited.

In Toronto, Jews have been targeted and harassed in their neighborhood and community buildings. At university campuses, Jewish students are routinely experiencing harassment and intimidation from other students and often don’t feel welcome.

All this make up what’s been a 124.6 percent rise in antisemitic incidents from 2022 to 2024, with Jews targeted 25 times more than other Canadians, when it comes to hate crimes.

The Canadian Criminal Law Working Group—created last March by the Alliance of Canadians Combatting Antisemitism (ALCCA), the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA), and the Canadian Jewish Law Association (CJLA)—hosted four criminal law experts who are proponents of Bill C-9 as a way to combat Canada’s surging antisemitism, claiming it would provide better protection and security for Canadian Jewish communities and other persecuted minority groups.

Bill C-9, first proposed by the Trudeau government, would amend the Criminal Code to strengthen penalties against hate-motivated crimes, including places of worship. The bill, if passed, would also introduce new offences for displaying hate symbols.

It is currently being further studied in Parliament, after the Conservatives, NDP, civil rights groups, and Islamic and Christian faith groups all jointly alleged that the legislation could lead to prosecutorial abuse of hate crime provisions. Critics argue that the proposed legislation has far too broad definitions and expanded enforcement powers that could chill some free expression and create inconsistent enforcement standards. For many opponents, their main contention is that it would remove the religious exemption for expressing belief or reading aloud certain scripture.

However, the criminal law experts at the event believe bolstering hate crime laws would help prosecute more offenders, with many currently getting away with brazen offences in public spaces. They say it would deter future public demonstrations where hate is openly expressed. For example, in the last few years, the police have often allowed pro-Palestinian protestors who openly show support for Hamas, a designated terrorist organization in Canada, to intimidate and harass Jews without legal consequences.

Current hate crime provisions not working 

The speakers agreed that while many of the current laws are fairly strong on paper, if police aren’t properly trained to enforce them, hate crimes go unpunished. The Criminal Code already includes offences for hate propaganda, hate-motivated crimes such as assaults, threats, criminal harassment, mischief, vandalism, and arson.

“The enforcement of existing laws is one of the main issues, if not the main issue, that we are facing as a Jewish community in Canada,” explained the host and CIJA senior vice president and general counsel Richard Marceau.

Retired Toronto Police Service inspector Hank Idsinga, now a radio and TV crime commentator, said frontline officers often lack detailed training to recognize modern hate and terror symbols. He added that police protest responses are overly reticent due to institutional trauma from the G20 scandal (and its subsequent lawsuits), where officers unlawfully detained protestors in downtown Toronto after kettling them— surrounding them on all sides and pushing them into an increasingly smaller space.

In Idsinga’s view, many police services at today’s demonstrations have reprioritized keeping the peace with the protestors, instead of keeping the peace for the public. Idsinga believes that by de-escalating and conceding space to protestors, officers have sent the message that protestors can escalate with little consequences.

Rochelle Direnfeld, ALCCA senior criminal counsel, agreed that training officers and lawyers more around the Criminal Code and what constitutes infractions they can charge for are key. She added that prosecutors also need to be educated about new types of antisemitism.

Direnfeld referenced a recent case in Toronto, where a Jewish person was spat on and called a “Zionist little pig.” The case was withdrawn by the Crown.

“The accused entered into a six-month peace bond, which seemed to be a very weak consequence to what that accused did,” said Direnfeld. She added that absent hate-crime literacy, Crown attorneys may treat hate as a minor add-on, rather than the central aggravating feature.

The panelists also discussed how current hate-crime laws often require the attorney general to give consent before charging. For cases of advocating genocide, wilful promotion of hatred, and wilful promotion of antisemitism, sign-off from the attorney general is required. Currently cases involving public incitement of hatred don’t require the attorney general’s approval. Direnfeld insisted this slows down the process and reduces the number of charges being laid.

Bill C-9 would allow law enforcement to charge for more hate-crimes, without first getting consent from the attorney general.

Why police and lawyers believe Bill C-9 will help make Jewish communities safer

Legal scholars also analyzed possible scenarios where individuals should or shouldn’t be charged with hate crime violations.

In one real-life scenario discussed, the leadership of a mosque distributes materials to its membership where they describe deceased Hamas members as “martyrs,” glorifying them as fighters justified in their armed resistance against Zionists, while sharing videos of the events online.

Sandler responded by debunking a misconception that expressing hatred in religious institutions is immune from hate-crime charges.

He said he believes Bill C-9 would sharpen the hate-crime laws in order to more easily prosecute in cases like this.

“Under C-9 we have some support for new legislation, willful promotion of hatred through public display of symbols and so on. And we’ve got terrorist symbols in this scenario that would give rise to the potential use of that section,” Sandler explained.

The event closed with criminal defence lawyer Joseph Neuberger encouraging the Jewish community to be civically engaged if they want to see stronger enforcement and Bill C-9 succeed.

“The vilification and hatred directed at the Jewish community is like no other. I encourage everybody to not let the politicians off the hook,” Neuberger said.

“I encourage everybody to be literate and active and engaged with your politicians…Only through concerted effort…will change come.”