Tory MP Tables Bill to Protect Political Beliefs From Discrimination

Conservative MP Garnett Genuis responds to a question during a news conference in Ottawa on Nov. 26, 2020. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press)

Conservative MP Garnett Genuis tabled a private member’s bill on Mar. 3 that seeks to amend Canada’s human rights code to prohibit discrimination on the basis of people’s political beliefs and activities. 

“This bill is about protecting the rights of individuals, their freedom of speech, and their freedom to be involved in the democratic process without facing reprisals,” Genuis said at a press conference in Ottawa on March 4.

Genuis said private companies should not be allowed to require workers to be involved in political activities or be disciplined for any political activity that conflicts with the political values of employers who are attempting to use “their corporate power to shape democratic decision-making.” 

The Alberta MP also wants to prevent governments from leveraging private corporations as a way to exercise political discrimination.

“It would be sad and inconsistent if, after banning corporate and union donations to political parties, we allow the same entities to control politics through the coercion of their employees,” he said. “Private corporate actors could seek to influence politics in other discriminatory ways, such as through discriminatory advertising or content policies.”

He cited the recent example of the federal government using the Emergencies Act to freeze bank accounts of supporters and protesters in the Freedom Convoy without a court order. 

“The Justice Minister explicitly demonstrated that political views were a factor in considering whose bank accounts should be frozen.” 

Genuis said while the Conservative party opposes the breaking of laws, inconsistent legal applications to different kinds of protests and banking sanctions against law abiding people “raises serious concerns about the kind of political discrimination that we are allowing to take place.” 

Aside from private companies or the government using companies to discriminate on political grounds, Genuis said some federal policies such as the Canada Summer Jobs program values test also raises the issue of political interference. 

In 2018, the program prevented the participation of pro-life groups by requiring that their core mandate and jobs being funded did not undermine existing constitutional, human, or reproductive rights. 

Genuis acknowledged that some provinces and territories already have provisions against political discrimination, but noted there’s a need to introduce prohibitions at the federal level. 

He argued that since religion is already protected against discrimination in federal law, people holding political beliefs as a defining identity trait should be equally protected. 

“I think a strong argument can be made that political beliefs are held and felt with a comparable level of personal attachment and intensity for at least some individuals,” he said.

Genuis’s Bill C-257 was seconded by Conservative MP Leslyn Lewis. “We must remain a country where everyone is free to speak their mind, especially about their own government, without fear of repercussions,” Lewis wrote on Twitter.