ADAMS: Jivani’s Bible stunt was a gift to the Liberals and a disservice to Religious Conservatives
By the time a piece of legislation reaches a vote in the House of Commons, the theatrics have usually exhausted themselves. We are left with the mechanical reality of governance: a simple tally, a recorded decision, and the quiet dignity of a functioning democracy.
Or at least, that is how it is supposed to work.
What we witnessed two days ago with Conservative MP Jamil Jivani was something else entirely. In a staged moment of performative defiance, Jivani voted against Bill C-9 while clutching a Bible, a prop in what has become a tiresome routine of victimhood.
The subsequent post and social media celebration of this act confirmed what the photograph already suggested: this was not a spontaneous expression of faith. It was a production.
Let us be honest about what Bill C-9 actually does.
The legislation removes a “good faith” religious defence from certain hate speech provisions. That is it. The principle is unobjectionable to anyone who believes that the law should apply equally to all Canadians, regardless of the belief system they happen to subscribe to.
The notion that a sacred text could be used as a get-out-of-jail-free card for speech that would otherwise be deemed harmful was always a dubious carve-out, and the Liberals and Bloc rightfully removed it. That is not persecution. That is legislative housekeeping.
Jivani, however, would have you believe that Christians are under siege. His Bible stunt—which, by the way, violated the House of Commons' rules on parliamentary decorum—was designed to send a message of defiance against a government supposedly hostile to faith.
But consider, for a moment, the inverse.
Imagine, if you will, a Liberal MP who happened to be Muslim. Imagine that MP standing in the House, holding a Quran aloft, violating the same procedural rules, and casting a vote with the explicit suggestion that their religion was being targeted by the opposition.
What do you suppose the reaction would be from the same conservative voters and the same commentator now celebrating Jivani?
We all know the answer. It would be a spectacle. It would be dragged out for years. The MP in question would be hounded in public, their loyalty to Canada questioned, and the incident would become a permanent talking point in the next federal election. The right-wing establishment media that applauded Jivani would be demanding an RCMP investigation into "foreign interference" or "creeping Sharia law."
Which brings us to the uncomfortable truth that the Conservative Party of Canada seems unwilling to confront. Jivani did not prove that Christians are persecuted in this country. He proved the opposite. He proved that a Christian MP can flagrantly disregard parliamentary rules, weaponize religious symbolism, and be celebrated for it by his party and its allied media outlets.
That is not the behaviour of a marginalized group. That is the behaviour of a faction that knows it can act with impunity.
The Conservative Party owes Canadians an apology for indulging this divisive nonsense. For pretending that the removal of a legal loophole constitutes an attack on faith. For encouraging a politics of grievance that treats the House of Commons as a soundstage for culture war content.
Conservatives used to understand that true religious freedom does not require special exemptions. It requires a neutral public square where all are equal before the law. And it requires good taste to leave the Bible on the pew, where it belongs, rather than brandishing it like a weapon in the chamber.
Jivani is free to believe what he wants. But accountability applies to everyone. It is time his party remembered that.
This piece was written by an individual contributor and reflects the editorial position of The Provincial Times and Left Lane Media Group. Read our Content Policy here.
