OTTAWA — Conservatives say a deal between Liberals and the Bloc Québécois to remove a religious exemption from hate-speech laws in exchange for passing a bill targeting hate and terror symbols is an “assault” on freedom of speech and religion.
But the Bloc Québécois said the change was necessary to help prosecute rising hateful and antisemitic rhetoric, often made under the guise of exempted religious speech.
OTTAWA — The Liberals have agreed to remove religious exemptions from Canada’s hate-speech laws to secure Bloc Québécois support to help pass its bill targeting hate and terror symbols, National Post has learned through a source close to the talks.
Currently, the law exempts hateful or antisemitic speech if it based in good faith on the interpretation of a religious text, but that immunity is set to be removed. Additionally, the Liberals are expected to back off plans to eliminate the need for a provincial attorney general’s sign-off to pursue a hate-propaganda prosecution.
Fearless Prediction: Christians will bear the overwhelming brunt of prosecutions and Islamists will face few if any.
From Occam’s Razor
Forget terror plots, knife crime, or rampant theft, Britain’s police have bigger things to worry about—Christian street preachers. Shaun O’Sullivan, a 36-year-old preacher at the evangelical Awaken church in Swindon, was acquitted unanimously by a jury last week at Crown Court. He faced charges of racial and religious harassment against Muslims for saying the words: “Pray for the Jews and pray for the Palestinians.” This culminated in a six-day trial, costing an estimated £20,000.
In the name of objectivity and pluralism, religious education must introduce the beliefs of Islam and other religions as well, the Court says.
The UK Supreme Court has ruled that the Christian-focused model of religious education (RE) in Northern Ireland’s schools is unlawful, concluding that the current system fails to meet the requirement that teaching be “objective, critical and pluralistic.” The judgment follows a legal challenge brought by an unnamed father and his daughter, who attended a state-controlled primary school in Belfast. The girl had received Christian religious education and participated in Christian worship, but her non-religious parents objected to her being taught about Christian faith, despite having an option to withdraw their child at any time from RE.
Finland’s Supreme Court on Thursday opened hearings against parliamentarian Dr. Päivi Räsänen and Bishop Juhana Pohjola in the infamous ‘Bible Tweet’ case, which many consider a defining moment for free speech and religious liberty in Europe. Both stand accused of ‘hate speech’ over public statements and writings expressing their Christian views on marriage and sexuality.
A federal task force established by President Donald Trump has released its first findings, revealing what it describes as systemic government hostility toward Christians during former President Joe Biden’s presidency.
The Task Force to Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias, chaired by U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, outlined in its preliminary report a pattern of federal agencies targeting people of faith, especially Christians, through regulatory overreach, selective enforcement, and outright discrimination. The report is based on investigations and case studies collected over the past several months.
The U.S. State Department has once again sent the United Kingdom a clear warning: the ongoing persecution and prosecution of praying pro-lifers will not be tolerated. Their annual “United Kingdom 2024 Human Rights Report” opens with an ominous conclusion: “The human rights situation worsened in the United Kingdom during the year.”
The report noted “specific areas of concern, including … ‘Safe Access Zones’ (limiting speech rights around abortion clinics). These restrictions on freedom of speech could include prohibitions on efforts to influence others when inside a restricted area, even through prayer or silent protests.” The stark rise in antisemitism is also cited.
The Trump administration is backing a controversial Christian preacher at the centre of a “two-tier” policing row over his right to criticise Islam, The Telegraph can reveal.
Dia Moodley, a father of four, met US officials dispatched to interview British “victims of censorship” amid growing concern in Washington that free speech in the UK is under threat.
In the past four years, the evangelical pastor, from Bristol, has been the subject of repeated enforcement action by Avon and Somerset Police over his street preaching, which includes comparisons between Christianity and Islam, as well as sermons on abortion and homosexuality.
NEW: Christian pastor threatened with arrest after being assaulted by Muslim men who objected to his peaceful street preaching in Bristol.
With our legal support, Pastor Dia Moodley is taking action against the police.
Support him:https://t.co/FCj64Wj8su pic.twitter.com/NZrc2oTJQF
— ADF International (@ADFIntl) August 2, 2025
In a 6-3 decision on Mahmoud v. Taylor, the Supreme Court ruled that parents can opt their young children out of sexuality and gender instruction in school based on their religious beliefs. The court’s three liberal judges dissented. This is a major win for religious freedom.
If you have ever doubted the existence of two-tier policing in the UK, just look at the appalling treatment of Christian street preachers. Earlier this year, a Christian pastor called Dia Moodley was arrested and held in a police cell for 13 hours. His alleged ‘crime’ was to have criticised Islam. Most of the details only emerged last week.
Expressing traditional beliefs on marriage and the family has become “the potential end of a political career or employment,” which presents “a serious threat to religious freedom” in the West, religious liberty experts were told at a Berlin conference.
The event, held alongside the Berlin Ministerial of the International Religious Freedom or Belief Alliance (IRFBA), focused on the difficulties that believers in traditional teachings on marriage, family, gender, and human nature face in Europe and North America.
The event, titled “FoRB and Tolerance for Tradition: The Challenge for the Pluralistic West,” drew speakers from Asia, America, and Europe.
The loosely knit collective that vocally opposed COVID-19 health measures has morphed into a movement waging a broader fight against “perceived government overreach,” says a newly released assessment from Canada’s spy agency.
The Canadian Security Intelligence Service’s analytical brief traces the evolution of the “Freedom” movement that began to emerge following the early 2022 protests that paralyzed downtown Ottawa and key Canada-U.S. border points.
Despite having been acquitted of hate speech twice, Finnish MP Päivi Räsänen may still have to face another day in court on the same charges.
The Finnish public prosecutor has appealed the case to the country’s supreme court.
Räsänen, who has been a member of parliament since 1995 and also served as minister of the interior from 2011 to 2015, was formally charged with “agitation against a minority group” in 2021 under a section of the Finnish criminal code titled “war crimes and crimes against humanity”.
It might seem overblown to call this appeals hearing the Trial of the Century. It’s not. The ability of people in every society of the West to speak freely about what they believe is true is on trial.
Believe it or not, the Trial of the Century just happened in a courtroom in Helsinki. The Finnish parliamentarian and physician Päivi Räsänen this week returned to the dock to face hate crimes charges for having quoted the Bible in defense of Scripture’s teaching on homosexuality.
While it is not altogether surprising that yet another Christian has been brought up on charged of blaspheming against LGBTs—who have been elevated from ordinary people, as equal as anybody else, into liberalism’s divinities—a statement the Finnish prosecution made in the trial’s opening raised the proceedings from an ordinary example of post-Christian liberalism’s contempt for the faith and free speech, into something epochal. Attention must be paid.
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In applying for a police permit, a Swedish man claims he wants to protect free speech and argues his act is a response to the Koran burning.
In an inversion of a famous Supreme Court argument, Swedes seem to ignore the dangers of an actual fire in a crowded theater: Like Muslims last month after a Koran burning at Stockholm, world Jews are irate over a Swedish police decision to allow a Saturday protest centered on a burning of sacred scriptures in front of the Israeli embassy at the Swedish capital.
The planned burning of a Torah and a bible at the embassy was included in a request by a Swedish man who in applying for a police permit for his act claimed he wants to protect free speech. In his petition, the man reportedly argued his protest is a response to the burning of Koran in front of a Stockholm mosque on the Muslim holiday of Eid el Fitr.
