The motion poses no direct threat to our freedom of speech. That right is enshrined in our constitution and cannot be overridden by statute, let alone an innocuous motion in the House.

But the wording is unnecessarily narrow - implying a paramountcy of one kind of religious bigotry. Nor is the premise that hate crimes are on the rise founded in fact. Stats Canada reports a 17% decline in police-reported hate crimes. And while hate crimes against Muslims doubled, that number is still half or less the number of hate crimes against Jews.

The mosque murders in Quebec are horrendous and should be condemned but frankly I'm not sure motions in the Commons are the best way of reaching those most at risk of radicalization. The best preventative for hate speech is speech. We need to keep the distinction between the two in clear sight - something even mainstream media has failed to do.