By The Iron Quill | TheQuillStrikes.Substack.com

For years, Canadians have been told that resistance is pointless.

That Ottawa cannot be stopped—the government moves in one direction, and the people simply learn to live with the consequences.

But every once in a while, the curtain slips.

Every once in a while, the machinery of narrative control grinds to a halt. And every once in a while, the truth forces its way to the surface.

That moment has arrived.

Bill C-9 (The Combatting Hate Act), a bill that the government swore was harmless, necessary, and protected by moral authority, suffered a public and humiliating collapse. The very institutions expected to defend it were forced to admit the truth. And the Liberals found themselves exposed, cornered, and out of road.

For the first time in a long time, the people won.

The Bill They Swore We Could Not Question

From the moment Bill C-9 was introduced, the message from Ottawa was simple.

Critics were liars. Legal scholars were alarmists. Faith leaders were misinformed. And anyone who raised concerns about the removal of the religious-text exemption was spreading disinformation.

The Liberals insisted that no Canadian would ever be criminalized for quoting their own scriptures.

They assured the public that the bill was benign, surgical, and misunderstood.

They framed every objection as extremism. They believed the public would kneel. They believed the media would shield them. They believed the narrative would hold.

They were wrong.

CBC Breaks Ranks—The Moment The Dam Burst

There are moments that define political collapse, and one of them came when CBC journalists were forced to confront the truth live on air.

Not in a column. Not in a podcast. On national television.

CBC acknowledged that the concerns about Bill C-9 were real.

They acknowledged that the religious exemption was being removed. They acknowledged that the government’s messaging had been misleading.

In a single broadcast, the illusion shattered.

The Liberals were no longer debating skeptics. They were debating their own media. You could feel the ground shift the moment the fact-check landed.

A bill built on narrative control cannot survive when the narrative turns against it.

The Panic Begins—Liberal Damage Control

Within hours, the tone from Ottawa changed.

Gone was the certainty. Gone was the arrogance. Gone was the accusation that critics were liars.

The justice minister appeared before the cameras and uttered the one word no confident government ever uses.

Clarify.

Suddenly, a bill that was supposedly airtight needed explanation. Suddenly, a bill that was supposedly harmless needed rewriting. Suddenly, the government admitted—without admitting—that something had gone terribly wrong.

This was not clarification.

It was retreat.

Opposition Parties Smell Blood

Once the dam broke, Parliament shifted.

Conservatives pressed hard on constitutional grounds. The Bloc refused to endorse criminal tools that threatened cultural and religious expression. NDP members began to express discomfort with the sweeping reach of the bill.

The political map changed overnight.

Bill C-9 no longer had the votes to move forward.

The Liberals could not push it through committee. They could not whip their way past public outrage. They could not hide behind media cover.

The bill was deadlocked.

Ottawa knew it. Canadians felt it. And the government had nowhere left to go.

Canadians Stood Up, And It Worked

This collapse did not happen because Ottawa grew wiser. It happened because Canadians spoke with clarity.

Churches united. Faith leaders refused to stay silent. Civil liberties advocates stepped into the fire. Ordinary Canadians wrote, called, shared, rallied, and refused to accept the lie that their concerns were imaginary.

The government underestimated the people.

They believed Canadians would sleepwalk through the most significant alteration to religious and expressive freedoms in decades.

Instead, the public forced a reckoning.

Bill C-9 fractured because the people broke the narrative that protected it.

Why Bill C-9 Is Politically Dead

A bill dies long before it is withdrawn.

It dies when momentum collapses. It dies when media coverage evaporates. It dies when the minister loses the room. It dies when opposition parties sense weakness. It dies when the public no longer believes a word the government says.

Bill C-9 has reached that stage.

It cannot move forward as written. It cannot be defended without contradiction. It cannot be sold to a public that now understands what is inside it. It cannot pass without political suicide for the Liberals.

The bill is not paused. It is not delayed.

It is politically finished.

The Quill’s Verdict

This is not the final battle. But it is a victory worth naming.

A government that believed it could criminalize belief by stealth was forced into retreat. A national broadcaster that once carried water for Ottawa was compelled to speak the truth. A population that was expected to remain silent found its voice.

The fog lifted. The truth broke through. And for the first time in a long time, the people proved that power still answers to them.

The Remnant should take note. Courage is contagious. Truth is resilient.

And when the people stand together, the machinery of control begins to crack.

Tonight [December 11, 2025], we celebrate a win.

Tomorrow, the fight continues.

Originally published at thequillstrikes.substack.com