Press Room

Campaign Life Coalition (CLC), Canada’s national pro-life organization, is calling on Christians and pro-life advocates to prepare for increasing hostility following today’s passage of Bill C-9 at third reading in the House of Commons.

“With the passage of Bill C-9 in the House, Christians and pro-life advocates will almost certainly face an entirely new level of hostility, as the door swings open to actual persecution under a cloak of supposed legality,” said David Cooke, a Christian pastor and Campaigns Manager for CLC.

Cooke warned that Bill C-9—presented as a measure to combat “hate,” but one that religious leaders from various faith communities say could lead to hate-related charges against believers—empowers ideologically-driven police officers and judges to target, for the first time, the very word of God on matters of life, family, and faith.

“We must prepare for the battle ahead,” he said, “and commit ourselves afresh to the One who has won the ultimate victory over every foe, demonstrated by His resurrection on that first Easter morning.”

Cooke added that Christians have faced persecution from the beginning and should not be surprised to encounter it again. “Jesus told us that ‘if they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you’ (John 15:20). But we have nothing to fear, since, as the Apostle John tells us, we are ‘of God ... and have overcome them, because He who is in [us] is greater than he who is in the world’” (1 John 4:4).

Religious leaders along with CLC have warned that the bill exposes people of faith to hate crime charges by removing an exemption from the Criminal Code stating that individuals cannot be prosecuted for wilful promotion of hatred if, in good faith, they are expressing “an argument or opinion on a religious subject” or one “based on a belief in a religious text.”

The bill’s potential implications for pro-life Canadians were made more explicit during debate on Bill C-9 on March 23, 2026, when Liberal MP John-Paul Danko (Hamilton West—Ancaster—Dundas) cited “anti-abortion hate” as an example of the kind of expression the bill is intended to target.

Jack Fonseca, CLC’s Director of Political Operations, said the battle to stop Bill C-9 has now moved to the Senate, and expressed concern that senators—most of whom were appointed by Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (82 of 105)—are not sympathetic to the concerns of religious believers.

“The battle to defend religious freedom in Canada has now moved to the Senate, which, unfortunately, Justin Trudeau spent the past decade stacking with anti-Christian bigots like Kristopher Wells, a radical LGBT activist who I suspect will relish the opportunity to criminalize parts of the Bible as “hate speech,” he said.

Even so, Fonseca encouraged Canadians of faith not to lose hope, but to continue engaging in the democratic process in an effort to stop Bill C-9 in the Senate.

“We call upon all people of goodwill to flood senators with phone calls, emails, social media comments, and, if possible, personal visits. For those who are Christian, we also encourage these efforts to be reinforced spiritually through extra prayer and fasting between now and the final third-reading vote in the Senate. God answers those who ask for help,” he said.

“Our job is to remain standing and keep fighting in defense of truth, no matter the odds,” he added.