Canada attempts scraps blasphemy law. It was last invoked against a cinema that showed “Life of Brian” in 1980. The Liberal Party forwarded bill C-51, which is currently in committee.

It’s been ninety years since the last conviction: an atheist was prosecuted under the law (he was jailed for sixty days). The law was passed in 1892.

The argument today is that both statements “God is Great” and “God is a Myth” should both be protected speech under Canadian laws.

In the 1980 case, the Ontario Attorney General stepped in to put a stop to the case, but under the provisions of the act, it would have held up in court.

globalnews.ca

Fortunately here in Canada it didn’t take any sort of outrageous prosecution to convince the government to scrap our blasphemy law. In fact, it was accomplished with relatively little fanfare.

On Tuesday, the Liberals unveiled Bill C-51, which aims to “clean up the Criminal Code” by further clarifying sexual assault laws and also by eliminating a number of provisions that have been found unconstitutional, are similar to those found unconstitutional, or are simply obsolete and/or redundant.

That includes section 296 of the Criminal Code, which is the prohibition on publishing a “blasphemous libel.” It will now be relegated to the ash bin of history, along with other such relics as “challenging someone to a duel,” “possessing or publishing crime comics,” and “fraudulently pretending to practice witchcraft.”