BREAKING: Critics Say Mark Carney’s Liberals Pushing Bill That Could Jail Canadians Up to 5 Years for “Hate-Interpreted” Bible Verses

A political firestorm is erupting in Ottawa as critics warn that Mark Carney’s Liberal government is advancing new hate-speech legislation that could expose certain Bible verses—as well as passages from other major religious texts—to criminal prosecution for the first time in Canadian history.

The proposed legislation, part of a broader overhaul of Canada’s hate-propaganda laws, removes the long-standing Criminal Code exemption that explicitly protected good-faith religious expression, including sermons, public readings of scripture, and doctrinal teachings rooted in sacred texts. Critics say that without this safeguard, the legal line between constitutionally protected religious practice and criminal hate speech becomes far less clear.

Under the new framework, courts would be empowered to assess whether specific expressions from the Bible, the Quran, the Torah, or other religious writings amount to “wilfully promoting hatred”—a standard that could carry penalties of up to five years in prison depending on how the law is applied. Although the bill does not name any religious text explicitly, faith leaders argue the risk is real: if a particular verse is interpreted by prosecutors as detestation or vilification of a protected group, it could become the basis for a criminal charge.

Religious organizations across the country are warning of what they describe as an unprecedented chilling effect. Church leaders say pastors may feel pressured to avoid preaching certain passages, while ordinary believers could fear reading or sharing scripture publicly—online or offline—out of concern that their words could be legally misconstrued.

“This isn’t about inciting violence,” one national faith representative said. “This is about whether centuries-old religious teachings from the Bible and other sacred texts can now be judged as criminal because of shifting cultural interpretations. Once you remove the religious-expression exemption, everything changes.”

Civil liberties advocates are also sounding alarms, arguing that the bill risks undermining Canada’s Charter-protected freedoms of religion, conscience, and expression. Several legal experts warn that even if successful prosecutions are rare, the threat of criminal investigation may be enough to significantly constrain religious communication.

Government officials, however, insist that the intent of the legislation is not to criminalize scripture but to modernize hate-speech laws and prevent malicious actors from using religious texts as shields for genuinely harmful conduct. Still, critics say that unless clearer protections are written into the bill, the ambiguity itself poses a significant legal and societal danger.

As committee hearings continue in Parliament, pressure is mounting from churches, mosques, synagogues, and interfaith groups for the Liberal government to either restore the religious-expression exemption or explicitly clarify that traditional readings of sacred texts cannot be prosecuted as hate crimes.

For now, the debate shows no sign of slowing. And until the final version of the bill is voted on, millions of Canadians remain uncertain about whether their most cherished scriptures—including the Bible—could one day be treated as criminal if publicly quoted in the wrong context.