Criminal Code, R.S.C. 1985, c. C-46

Note: The ministerial chain content for this entry was found in the Privacy Act row in the original data. It has been moved here where it belongs. A separate entry for the Privacy Act appears in that row.

The Criminal Code's hate speech provisions were amended by Bill C-16 under the authority of the Minister of Justice, who is responsible for criminal law in Canada. The ministerial chain on this entry is shorter than on the correctional policy entries — the Criminal Code amendment was a legislative act passed by Parliament, not an administrative policy created by bureaucrats. But ministerial accountability for the consequences of that amendment, including the chilling effect on women's sex-based rights advocacy, is real and ongoing.

Jody Wilson-Raybould served as Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada from November 2015 to January 2019. She was the minister responsible for Bill C-16, which she introduced to the House of Commons and shepherded through Parliament. The bill's amendments to the Criminal Code's hate speech provisions — adding "gender identity or expression" to Sections 318, 319, and 718.2 — were enacted under her ministerial authority. During parliamentary debate on Bill C-16, Wilson-Raybould and government members consistently maintained that the bill would not be used to criminalize legitimate speech, that the existing defences in Section 319(3) were adequate, and that the Supreme Court's narrow interpretation of hatred in Keegstra would prevent the provisions from reaching protected expression. Critics, including academics, lawyers, and women's advocates, argued that the provisions' application to gender identity debates was unpredictable and that the undefined term "gender identity or expression" made enforcement boundaries unclear. Those concerns have not been tested to a final conclusion in the courts, but the chilling effect on public discussion of sex-based rights — including the advocacy work of organizations in this database — is documented and ongoing.

Justin Trudeau served as Prime Minister throughout the passage of Bill C-16 and bears political accountability for the decision to add "gender identity or expression" to hate speech provisions without defining the term in law.