The Liberals are moving forward with a motion to speed up the passage of their continuously delayed anti-hate bill, signalling the government may have run out of patience for further negotiations with the Conservatives.

A motion placed on the House notice paper this week would set a timeline for the justice committee to complete its review of Bill C-9.

If passed, it would require the committee to resume clause-by-clause consideration at its next meeting. Votes would be called on all amendments and the meeting cannot end until the bill passes review.

A report from the committee will then be required to be sent to the House “no later than two sitting days after the completion of clause-by-clause consideration,” according to the motion.

It would then be required to go through report stage and third reading in no more than one sitting day each.

The move comes after Justice Minister Sean Fraser said last month that the government was open to amendments to C-9 but was running out of patience for further delay.

In a statement, a spokesperson for the minister said the motion was needed to pass an important bill that sought to strengthen protections for religious communities and to allow the committee to turn its attention to another piece of government legislation aimed at tackling intimate partner violence and restoring minimum mandatory sentences for people convicted of child pornography offences and other crimes

“Every day the Conservatives continue to obstruct, our communities are left waiting for stronger protections in the face of rising hate. As Conservatives continue to obstruct, measures to help stop intimate partner violence before it turns deadly are delayed. And every day they continue to obstruct, measures to keep child predators behind bars are delayed,” said Lola Dandybaeva in an email.

“While Conservatives waste time talking about cats and dogs, we’ll stay focused on what Canadians elected us to do, and that is to keep our communities safe.”

The other bill being referred to is known as C-16.

The Liberals would need either the Bloc Quebecois, NDP or Conservatives to support the motion.

The Bloc has signalled that it would support the Liberals in passing C-9 if the government agreed to include an amendment that would remove the religious exemption for the crime of inciting hate.

But ever since the Liberals agreed to back the amendment, the Conservatives have effectively filibustered the bill at committee by refusing to stop debate and moving multiple points of order.

The Conservatives warned that the change would potential lead to the criminalization of religious teachings and rejected a recent Liberal amendment that sought to clarify even with the exemption, the hate speech law wouldn’t apply to “worship, sermons, prayer, religious education, peaceful debate, or even the good faith of reading and discussion of religious texts.”

Liberal MP Patricia Lattanzio, who moved an amendment, said this makes it clear that is not Parliament’s intent and the bill wouldn’t interfere with “genuine religious, academic, political or other good faith discussion on matters of public interest… unless someone is willfully promoting hatred against an identifiable group.”

“Ultimately, this bill is about protecting Canadians, including people of faith, from hate and intimidation,” she said.

“The clarifying language we are introducing this morning introduce ensures that Parliament’s intent is clear, both in the text of the law and on the parliamentary record.”

At its core, Bill C-9 creates new penalties to criminalize efforts to harass or obstruct access to places of worship. It comes directly from a campaign promise from the Liberals in the run-up to last year’s election, largely in response to concerns about anti-Israel protesters behaving aggressively towards Jewish residents and making chants glorifying violence against Jews.

In January, several Jewish groups made a joint call to urge parliamentarians to quickly pass the bill, as well as create a new offence for the wilful promotion of terrorism.

More to come…