The mayor and police in Hamilton, Ont., have decided that some Canadians have the wrong kind of opinions and should not be allowed to rent public facilities.
Last week, Hamilton Mayor Andrea Horwath declared that the Dominion Society is not entitled to rent city-owned property to hold a conference. The predictable result was to force the group to seek a private venue in which to hold its meeting.
The Hamilton Police Service then diverted some of its stretched resources to impeding the efforts of the Dominion Society, issuing a political statement denouncing it as “divisive and exclusionary,” and as negatively impacting “the sense of safety and belonging within our community.” The police even asked the public to contact them with information about any efforts the group might make to secure a venue.
Hamilton’s police and mayor are behaving much like Quebec’s former tourism minister, Caroline Proulx. In 2023, she ordered the Centre des congrès de Québec, which is owned by a Crown corporation, to cancel its contract with Harvest Ministries to hold a Christian conference. The sole reason for cancelling the contract was that Proulx vehemently disagreed with the Christian group’s beliefs about abortion.
The Superior Court of Quebec recently ruled that Proulx had abused her authority and violated the Charter-protected freedom of expression of Harvest Ministries. The court awarded general and punitive damages to Harvest Ministries.
The Dominion Society describes itself as “dedicated to promoting Canadian identity, heritage and nationalism.” It advocates for remigration: sending immigrants back to their countries of origin. Neither Hamilton’s mayor nor its police force have accused it of being violent, criminal or terrorist. It therefore has the same right as every other non-profit in Canada to operate peacefully within the law, and to advocate for its beliefs.
Polls have shown that roughly half of Canadians believe immigration levels are too high. Let’s say for argument’s sake that only eight per cent of Canadians support remigration, and 92 per cent oppose it. Should having only eight per cent support for your opinion mean losing your right to rent government-owned facilities, and to use public spaces like parks and sidewalks?
If yes, then no government facilities should be available for rental by the NDP, which garnered only 6.3 per cent of the popular vote in Canada’s most recent federal election. Almost 94 per cent of Canadians rejected the NDP in 2025. Yet the NDP is not disqualified from being able to exercise its Charter freedoms of expression, association and peaceful assembly.
Politicians and policemen have every right to express their political opinions for or against various groups and causes. At the same time, Canada’s mayors, cabinet ministers and police forces have no right to treat government property as though it were their own private property, available only to “good” people who have the “correct” political beliefs.
The Hamilton Police Service has a solemn duty to fight crime. Its decision to waste its scarce resources on politics is a betrayal of taxpayers and free citizens alike. Indeed, unlike other professions, police have a legal duty to enforce the Criminal Code, as well as numerous non-criminal laws (such as traffic safety).
The politicization of the British police should serve as a stark warning to Canadians. What began with the monitoring and recording of “non-crime hate incidents” quickly led to British citizens being criminally charged for what essentially amount to thought crimes.
Their crimes included sharing opinions about topics like immigration and transgenderism. David Wootton was sentenced to two years in prison for an “offensive” Halloween costume . This is why police should be 100 per cent focused on fighting crime and zero per cent focused on politics.
If Canada is to remain a free society, the government should uphold the law equally for all Canadians, including those who hold unpopular beliefs. Otherwise, there will be little to separate us from fascist, theocratic, communist or national socialist regimes, under which the government decides which views are correct.
This is why taxpayer-funded facilities like convention centres, and public spaces like sidewalks and city parks, are — and must always be — available to all citizens, regardless of their political beliefs.
National Post
John Carpay is president of the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms.
