Bill C-9 Bill C-9, An Act to amend the Criminal Code (hate propaganda, hate crime and access to religious or cultural places)
Bill C-9, known as the Combatting Hate Act, amended the Criminal Code to strengthen hate crime protections, address harassment around community spaces and places of worship, and add hate propaganda offenses. Nunavut Senator Nancy Karetak-Lindell put forward an amendment to Bill C-9 that would criminalize Indian Residential School denialism. The amendment passed the Senate Human Rights Committee with broad support, but the amendment was rejected by the Senate as a whole in a vote of 32-41. Instead, Bill C-9 received Royal Assent on June 18, 2026, with no provision to criminalize Indian Residential School denialism.
In July 2026, First Nations-in-Assembly passed an emergency Resolution directing the AFN to call on Canada to criminalize Indian Residential School denialism, either through an amendment to Bill C-9 or through a new standalone Bill that “criminalizes the public condoning, denial, justification, or minimization of Indian residential school denialism as a form of hate speech against First Nations.”