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Quebec’s new hate speech legislation can be interpreted as banning religious satire and won’t stand up to judicial scrutiny, says a former provincial politician who quit the Liberal caucus in 2014 over its secularism policy.

The bill violates freedom of expression because it is vague and can be interpreted as forbidding the mocking and criticism of faith-based groups, Fatima Houda-Pepin told a legislative committee in Quebec City on Monday.

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“It won’t hold up in court.”

The bill creates civil penalties for anyone found responsible by a provincial human rights tribunal of committing “hate speech and speech inciting violence” towards a group of people protected under Quebec’s Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms.

It would also give new powers to Quebec’s human rights commission to launch its own investigations into suspected cases of hate speech.

Premier Philippe Couillard, in response to the bill’s critics, recently affirmed the right of Quebecers to mock religions.