When MP Roman Baber rose in the House of Commons on 17 November to table Bill C-257, he was not just tinkering with legal technicalities. His proposal would create a new Criminal Code offence of “wilfully promoting a terrorist activity or a terrorist group,” punishable by up to five years in prison and classified as a terrorism offence. In plain language, Parliament is being asked whether glorifying terrorism from Canadian soil should itself be treated as a terrorism crime.

Supporters, including organizations such as the Canadian Jewish Law Association and B’nai Brith Canada, say the bill fills a dangerous gap exposed by rallies and online content that appear to praise Hamas and other listed entities. Critics worry about overreach and the chilling of legitimate protest.

Both sides are focused on the Charter implications. But in 2025, a promotion-of-terrorism law is not only a free-expression question. It is also a foreign-policy test of whether Canada is prepared to stop being a permissive platform for violent movements and state-linked proxies who wage their battles from Canadian territory.

This debate is unfolding against the backdrop of a darker threat. In his first annual public threat update on 13 November, CSIS Director Dan Rogers warned that Canada faces “the most complex national security environment in recent memory,” with violent extremism, foreign interference and espionage all intensifying at once.

The latest CSIS public report details a sharp rise in ideologically motivated violent extremism, the growing involvement of minors, and an information environment in which hostile states and non-state actors exploit online platforms to radicalize and intimidate. In that context, what Canada chooses to criminalize – or not – matters far beyond its borders.

Canada as an export hub for extremist propaganda

The clearest illustration came this year from Ottawa. In September, the Public Prosecution Service of Canada (PPSC) announced that 29-year-old Patrick Gordon MacDonald – better known online as “Dark Foreigner” – had been sentenced to 10 years in prison for enhancing the ability of a terrorist group to carry out activity, facilitating a terrorist activity, and committing an indictable offence for the benefit of a terrorist group, after producing and posting online highly polished video propaganda for the neo-Nazi organization Atomwaffen Division (AWD) and its successor, the National Socialist Order.

The sentencing release makes clear that his work was designed as global recruitment material, not local political commentary. The PPSC news release and accompanying coverage by outlets such as Global News underlined that this was a Canadian production line for “transnational extremist content, which willfully promoted hatred against an identifiable group, namely Jewish people, for the benefit of and in association with AWD.” MacDonald was prosecuted under existing terrorism provisions that target participation,........

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