Repeal section 18 of Manitoba’s Human Rights Code

To minjus@leg.gov.mb.ca,

The Honourable Matt Wiebe
Minister of Justice and Attorney General
Government of Manitoba
Room 104 Legislative Building
450 Broadway
Winnipeg, Manitoba, R3C 0V8

RE: Repeal section 18 of Manitoba’s Human Rights Code

Dear Minister Wiebe,

I am writing to urge your government to repeal section 18 of Manitoba’s Human Rights Code, C.C.S.M. c H175, which grants Manitoba’s human rights system broad authority to regulate lawful speech and political expression.

Manitoba’s Human Rights Code plays an important role in prohibiting genuine discrimination in employment, housing, public services, and other areas of civic life. These protections are already addressed throughout the Code’s provisions governing discriminatory conduct in employment, tenancy, services, accommodation, and related matters.

Section 18 is fundamentally different. It prohibits publishing, broadcasting, circulating, or publicly displaying any sign, symbol, notice, or statement that discriminates or indicates an intention to discriminate, or that incites, advocates, or counsels discrimination in respect of an activity or undertaking to which the Code applies.

Unlike the rest of Manitoba’s Human Rights Code, section 18 regulates speech itself rather than discriminatory conduct. In recent years, similar provisions elsewhere in Canada have increasingly been used to investigate and penalize citizens for expressing lawful opinions on controversial social and political issues. In one recent case in British Columbia, the BC Human Rights Tribunal ordered former Chilliwack School Board Trustee Barry Neufeld to pay $750,000 over comments criticizing gender ideology policies in schools.

Repealing section 18 would not legalize discrimination. Manitoba’s Human Rights Code would continue to prohibit discrimination in employment, housing, services, and public accommodations. Nor would repeal affect the Criminal Code prohibition on the wilful promotion of hatred under section 319.

I therefore urge you and all Members of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba to support legislation repealing section 18 of Manitoba’s Human Rights Code.

Manitoba should lead the way in protecting both genuine human rights and freedom of expression.

Sincerely,