Bloc's opposition to religious exemption for hate speech makes sense

It's not that often that I agree with much that the Bloc Québécois says, but the Bloc's amendment to the Liberals' Bill C-9 (the Combatting Hate Act") does make good sense.

Bill C-9 promises to clamp down on hate speech and make hate-motivated crimes a specific offence. But the Liberals' original formulation allowed the current criminal code's religious exemption to continue. This specifies that something that would otherwise qualify as hate speech can be allowed, "if, in good faith, the person expressed or attempted to establish by an argument an opinion on a religious subject or an opinion based on a belief in a religious text". 

So, religion can be used as a cover for homophobia, antisemitism, anti-Islamism, you name it, so long as it appears to come from religious convictions or an interpretation, however tenuous, of a religious text.

As the Bloc Québécois points out, such an exemption makes a self-defeating mockery of the law, alllowing for all sorts of hateful utterances provided the perpetrator claims it is part of their religious beliefs, and the Bloc refused to support the government unless the religious exemption was removed. The Liberals need the Bloc's votes to pass the legislation, so it has agreed to remove the offending clause. The Conservatives, predictably enough, continue to insist that the religious exemption is just fine.

Some of the Bloc Québécois' strident views on secularism are a bit too strong for me, a confirmed atheist. (For example, the recent ban on religious garb and symbols for public sector workers.) But this one seems sensible to me.