The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) applauded the Quebec government’s decision to withdraw the provisions on combating hate speech contained in Bill 59.

Numerous critics, including CIJA, have claimed these measures would stifle free speech and have a chilling effect on public discourse.

The proposed legislation would have permitted complaints about hate speech – not clearly defined in the proposed law – to be made anonymously to the Quebec Human Rights Commission.

“CIJA-Quebec salutes Justice Minister Stéphanie Vallée’s decision to eliminate from Bill 59 clauses that would endanger freedom of speech,” said co-chair Patrick Benaroche in a May 25 statement.

“Last August, during the special consultation and public hearings, CIJA expressed its concerns that Bill 59 did not strike the appropriate balance between protecting the fundamental freedom of speech and the protection from hate, and that there were several procedure deficiencies inherent in the draft law.”

In the face of relentless opposition from the Parti Québécois (PQ) and unwilling to invoke closure, Vallée announced May 25 that the government will table an amendment to the bill eliminating the hate speech provisions.

“The Liberal party is proposing to set up a thought police. Everyone will be constantly at risk of being sued by self-proclaimed defenders of political correctness,” the PQ’s Agnès Maltais charged.

The bill would have forbidden public statements that are hateful or incite violence against identifiable groups, as well as individuals, not only on the basis of race or religion, for example, but also “political convictions.”

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The remainder of the bill is mostly concerned with outlawing force marriages, as well as introducing additional measures to protect students’ emotional and physical security and creating an expanded role for child protection services.

Numerous commentators, including editorialists, lawyers and groups that felt Islamists, for instance, would be immune from criticism called for the bill to be abandoned.

Indeed, in its brief last summer, CIJA said the bill was so flawed that it needed a complete overhaul. It noted that it is “perilous to use civil law to accomplish what is treated adequately by criminal law.”

Bill 59 would have given the human rights commission the new power to investigate complaints of hate speech and make public the names of offenders. The human rights tribunal would have had the authority to impose monetary penalties – up to $10,000 for a first offence.

As CIJA pointed out, convictions could be made without requiring proof beyond a reasonable doubt, as in criminal cases.

Vallée introduced the bill last June along with Bill 62, which establishes state religious neutrality and provides a framework for handling reasonable accommodation requests from religious minorities, as well as a plan to prevent radicalization.

Both were drawn up in the aftermath of the bitter debate over the charter of values put forward by the PQ, whom the Liberals defeated the year before.

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Bill 62 is still in the offing.

On May 27, the government did unveil its “plan of action” to fight radicalism leading to violence, in co-operation with the City of Montreal.

The plan gives the human rights commission a mandate to analyze the situation and educate the public, and also enhances the training of police in detection of and intervention in radicalism, as well as sets out an awareness campaign in the school, health and social services sectors.