(LifeSiteNews) — The advocacy group 4 My Canada has launched a massive national grassroots initiative to combat the Liberal government’s proposed Bill C-9 hate speech legislation, which would remove protections for sincerely held religious beliefs and have devastating consequences for Canadian Christians and religious freedom in Canada.
In their “12 Days for Freedom” campaign, held from January 19 to 26, an estimated 2,000 Canadians made 40,000 calls to Members of Parliament to express their concerns. During the same period, MP Garnett Genuis has been galvanizing opposition to the bill along with other MPs such as Andrew Lawton and Larry Brock. The three MPs held a packed “Religious Freedom Town Hall” in Brampton on January 20 at the Galaxy Grand Convention Centre.
According to a press release from 4 My Canada, participants contacted MPs to urge them to withdraw Bill C-9, and Executive Director Faytene Grassechi, who also runs a popular Christian TV show, stated that the group has been overwhelmed by the response.
“When we organized this, we anticipated a few hundred participants and perhaps ten to fifteen thousand calls,” Grassechi said. “Instead, Canadians delivered more than 40,000 phone calls to Members of Parliament in just twelve days. We were amazed at the response. Clearly, Canadians are concerned.”
“The calls focused particularly on Liberal MPs elected by slim margins,” 4 My Canada’s press release stated. “The organization has stated that participants will also be encouraged to vote and to work against any Members of Parliament who ultimately support the legislation, should it return to the House of Commons for 3rd reading vote. 4 My Canada expressed hope that the Prime Minister will hear these concerns of Canadians from a wide range of faith backgrounds and withdraw the bill entirely.”
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“Plainly put, this is the wrong bill at the wrong time,” Grasseschi said. “It reflects poorly on the Liberals – especially alongside recent threats related to the revocation of charitable status for faith-based organizations. To many Canadians, this signals growing opposition to people of faith who are not part of the government’s traditional voting base. These are deeply troubling optics. For this, and other reasons, we sincerely hope they will change course.”
The backlash to Bill C-9 is already having an effect – on January 26, the Justice Committee voted to delay consideration of Bill C-9 while allowing other criminal legislation to proceed. Andrew Lawton, in statements in the House of Commons and on X, noted that public pressure via calls, petitions, and emails may be forcing reconsideration:
The Liberals on the Justice Committee finally agreed to let us work on fixing the broken bail system. As a result, they are pausing Bill C-9 (for now).
We also summoned Justice Minister Sean Fraser to appear next week.
Your voices are clearly being heard. pic.twitter.com/w1myVo3HHx
— Andrew Lawton (@AndrewLawton) January 26, 2026
“Your voices have been heard loud and clear,” Lawton said. “The messages that you’ve been sending Members of Parliament – you’ve been calling their offices, writing emails – they have worked, because what we succeeded in doing today is getting the Liberals to admit that there are far more pressing concerns than their divisive and toxic Bill C-9, which takes aim at the civil liberties and religious freedoms of Canadians.”
Instead, the Liberals agreed – after Conservative MPs attempted to get them to agree to this 20 times last month – to focus instead on bail reform.
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“Now, Bill C-9 is not dead forever,” Lawton warned. “The Liberals have still said they intend to push this bill forward, and we need to continue to stand up and oppose this bill, to stand up for religious freedom. But we’ve bought ourselves two weeks. For the next three meetings we’re going to be focused exclusively on bail, which means we’ll be able to get serious about real crime, instead of thought crime.”
“I want to thank all of you who have spoken up here – who have come to town halls we’ve been having across the country. I’ve spoken to thousands and thousands of Canadians, and I know many more of you have … reached out to my office, have reached out to your own members’ office. We’re going to continue to fight for your fundamental religious freedom and your fundamental right to freedom of expression.”
