The Canadian government intends to use hate crime laws against groups that support boycotting Israel, according to recent news reports. Prime Minister Stephen Harper has it exactly wrong: Canada should learn from boycott advocates, not prosecute them. This new policy, which has been widely derided as a grave violation of free speech, was revealed from an email exchange between a CBC reporter and a spokesperson for Canada’s Public Safety Department. The reporter asked what the federal government’s zero-tolerance policy for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israeli companies means in practice. The spokesperson replied by citing Canadian hate crime laws and stating, “We will not allow hate crimes to undermine our way of life, which is based on diversity and inclusion.” The government has since responded by calling the CBC report that made the allegation a “bizarre conspiracy theory.” The email exchange, published in full by the Intercept, proves the CBC’s reporting was accurate. The Canadian government’s actions over the last few years make CBC’s claim seem accurate as well, as the state has shown its willingness to trample over its own purported values in order to maintain an allegiance with Israel.

Expanded laws

In 2014 the Canadian government expanded hate speech laws to include “national origin” as opposed to just race and religion. Some believe this is an effort to make anti-Zionist BDS activists vulnerable to hate speech charges for standing against Israel, as pro-Israeli groups in Belgium and other states have been actively supporting an expanded conception for this purpose. More than 20 BDS activists in France have been convicted under a similar law. The government has since doubled down on opposition to BDS. In January, Canada signed a new Memorandum of Understanding with Israel. The Canadian foreign affairs minister, John Baird, announced, “Canada strongly supports Israel’s right to defend itself by itself and its right to live in peace with its neighbours. Canada will fight any efforts internationally to delegitimize the State of Israel, including the disturbing BDS Movement.” Public safety minister Steven Blaney proudly shared Canada’s allegiance to Israel at the expense of Canadians’ free-speech rights during an address to the United Nations (UN) General Assembly shortly after. Blaney announced Canada’s “zero-tolerance approach to anti-Semitism and all forms of discrimination including rhetoric towards Israel and attempts to delegitimize Israel such as the BDS movement,” conflating the explicitly peaceful form of economic resistance with a violent attack on a kosher supermarket in Paris earlier this year.

If freedom of expression were truly a Canadian value, the Harper administration would not be seeking to systemically dismantle the BDS movement.

Justin Trudeau, the leader of Canada’s unofficial opposition Liberal Party, has also come out against BDS. Trudeau said, in a tweet shared prior to a democratic BDS vote at McGill University, that, “The BDS movement, like Israeli Apartheid Week, has no place on Canadian campuses.” The government opposes BDS because it allegedly undermines “Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state,” according to Harper, who believes this right is “absolute and non-negotiable.” Regardless of the reasoning, the crackdown on BDS makes it clear that Harper’s forceful calls for freedom of speech and expressionsince the Jan. 7 attack at the Paris offices of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo are hypocritical. If freedom of expression was truly a Canadian value, as Harper claims, his administration would not be seeking to systemically dismantle the BDS movement.

Charity-busting