The Senate has rewritten the government’s hate crime bill to include a ban on anti-Black symbols, but rejected a proposal to criminalize residential school denialism.

Sen. Wanda Thomas Bernard’s amendment to Bill C-9 was the only one to pass at third reading on Thursday, after the chamber rejected the report on the bill from the human rights committee.

Her amendment would criminalize public displays of nooses and white pointed hoods, labelling them symbols of “anti-Black racism.” The bill already included language criminalizing other symbols, including the Nazi “SS bolts.”

Bernard’s amendment was originally passed at committee, but needed to be reintroduced after the report was voted down by the wider Senate on Wednesday.

That vote also killed Nunavut Sen. Nancy Karetak-Lindell’s amendment that would criminalize condoning, denying or downplaying the Indian residential school system. But the Senate opted against restoring this amendment at third reading.

Because it was amended, the bill will now return to the House, where the government must decide whether to accept or reject the new version of the legislation. A rejection will punt Bill C-9 back to the Senate, and this will continue until both sides agree on the same version. However, the Senate rarely insists on amendments rejected by the House.

As originally drafted, Bill C-9 was designed to give the police new powers to stop harassment campaigns targeting people as they visit places of worship. It came directly from a Liberal campaign promise in the run-up to last year’s election, largely in response to criticism over anti-Israel protesters behaving aggressively towards Jewish residents and making chants glorifying violence against Jews.

It became the subject of intense Conservative opposition after the Liberals accepted a Bloc Quebecois amendment that would remove the religious exemption from hate speech offences. The Conservatives warned that it risked criminalizing religious teachings, though the Liberals countered freedom of religion is protected by the Charter and the exemption has never been successfully used.

When it moved to the Senate, the chamber’s human rights committee made several changes, but shot down an amendment from Conservative Sen. Yonah Martin aimed at restoring the exemption.

Martin introduced a similar amendment at third reading that sought to shield ‘good faith’ arguments based around religious teachings, but the Senate rejected it in a decisive vote.

With Bernard’s amendment, the bill easily passed third reading, though only 60 senators voted or formally abstained.

There are 105 seats in the Senate, though 10 are vacant. The speaker doesn’t vote unless there is a tie.

Mark Carney hasn’t made a Senate appointment since he became prime minister last March.