Canada
See also: Hate speech laws in CanadaIn Canada, blasphemous libel is an offence under section 296(1) of the Criminal Code. It is an indictable offence and is punishable with imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years.
Section 296 is subject to section 2 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, as read with section 1 of that Charter.
Section 296 was formerly section 260 of the Criminal Code (R.S., c. C-34).
The Crown last prosecuted a charge of blasphemous libel in R. v. Rahard 3 D.L.R. 230 (Court of Sessions of the Peace, Quebec, 1935). In that case, the court adopted an argument that prosecutor E. J. Murphy had proffered in the case of R. v. Sperry (unreported) 1926. Mr. Murphy put the issue this way:
- The question is, is the language used calculated and intended to insult the feelings of and the deepest religious convictions of the great majority of the persons amongst whom we live? If so, they are not to be tolerated any more than any other nuisance is tolerated. We must not do things that are outrages to the general feeling of propriety among the persons amongst whom we live.
In Rahard, the Court found the Rev. Victor Rahard of the Anglican Church guilty of blasphemous libel for his aspersions upon the Roman Catholic Church.
The words "calculated and intended to insult the feelings and the deepest religious convictions of the great majority of the persons amongst whom we live", which the court used, were adopted from the summing up of Lord Coleridge, LCJ. in R v Bradlaugh (1883) 15 Cox CC 217 at 230.
R. v. St. Martin (1933) 40 Rev. de Jur. 411 was also cited in R. v. Rahard. Cf. R. v. Kinler (1925) 63 Que. S.C. 483.
Because blasphemy appears to be an obsolete crime in Canada, Canadians complain instead of hate speech. The Criminal Code of Canada prohibits hate speech that targets an "identifiable group", which includes a religious group. Canada's provinces and territories have human rights commissions or tribunals which can award compensation in matters of hate speech.
Read more about this topic: Blasphemous Libel
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