OTTAWA — A group of advocates representing voices across civil society and faith communities came together on Wednesday to decry what they called the “ever-expanding” scope of the Liberals’ legislation aimed at tackling hate.

It comes as MPs on the parliamentary justice committee begin their clause-by-clause review of the legislation, known as Bill C-9, with voting set to get underway on a series of amendments, including one proposed by the Bloc Québécois to see the Criminal Code scrubbed of an existing religious defence for certain hate speech laws.

That change was not outlined in the original text of the bill, which Justice Minister Sean Fraser presented back in September.

Removing that defence from Canada’s hate speech laws has been a longstanding request of the Bloc Québécois, who,

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