Social Policy in Ontario

Flaying the Anti-Terrorism Act

Posted on March 28, 2015 in Governance Debates

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TheStar.com – Opinion/Editorials – Public support for the Anti-Terrorism Act has plunged dramatically as Canadians learn of the details.
Mar 26 2015.   Editorial

Are Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservatives running scared of the barrage of criticism they’ve been getting over their heavy-handed Anti-Terrorism Act? It sure looks that way.

At a time when most Canadians are fully engaged grousing about a late spring, the Conservative party is pushing every button it can to change the channel to Fear Factor. To hear the party tell it — via an alarmist email blitz directed at members and supporters — the anti-terror bill is the only thing that prevents Canada, the Peaceable Kingdom, from morphing into an Islamic State North.

Urging Tory loyalists to “show your support for this vital legislation,” the email says Bill C-51 aims to combat “the spread of radical jihad here in Canada,” to crack down on people “trying to use Canada as a recruitment ground,” and to stop those who would “spread their ideology of hate” here.

The evidence for this riptide of fear? The email cites six Montreal teens who are thought to have gone to Syria and two Ottawa brothers who were stopped from leaving. In a country of 35 million.

This is rhetorical overkill, even by loose Conservative standards. No one questions that Canadians are concerned about terrorism after the Parliament Hill attack and other scares. Or that we need to be alert. But fanning overblown fears to peddle a hugely flawed bill that threatens the rights of every citizen can only discredit the government and undermine its case.

As the Star has argued before, rather than defend the indefensible the government should withdraw the bill, or rewrite it. It hasn’t got the balance right between giving the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and other agencies powers to keep Canadians safe, and respecting civil rights.

Indeed, support for the Anti-Terrorism Act has plunged as Canadians learn of the details. A recent Forum Poll found 50 per cent disapproval and just 38 per cent support. Only last month an Angus Reid poll found 82 per cent support.

Thoughtful critics have laid bare the bill’s many flaws as Parliament scrutinizes it. Consider just the most recent objections that have been raised:

The Canadian Bar Association, no hotbed of cranks, has warned that the new law “would conscript judges to authorize Charter violations and unlawful acts (by Canada’s spies), under the guise of providing judicial oversight.” That would bring the entire Charter of Rights into jeopardy, undermine the rule of law and subvert the role of judges as protectors of the constitutional order. “Parliament should not empower CSIS or judges to disregard the constitutional foundations of our legal system,” the association warned. That chilling prospect alone should send the bill’s authors back to the drawing board.

Moreover, that doesn’t begin to exhaust C-51’s flaws, the association argued. It called for better safeguards for freedom of speech, privacy rights and the right to protest, among other measures. It urged better oversight by Parliament and by a new national security adviser. It recommended CSIS be required to report on how it uses its new powers to disrupt security threats. It proposed needed safeguards for the no-fly list. And it wants C-51 brought back to Parliament for “rigorous review” after three or five years.

Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau took much the same approach on Thursday with his party’s proposed amendments. He, too, is pushing to give Parliament more oversight, require a review of the new law after three years, and better safeguard Charter rights, including privacy and freedom of expression, protest and dissent.

The Canadian Civil Liberties Association, meanwhile, has questioned why the proposed legislation is needed at all, given that Canadian law already has “robust” tools to help combat terrorism.

OpenMedia, a digital rights group, presented a petition signed by more than 100,000 people, objecting that the bill turns CSIS into “a ‘secret police’ force with little oversight or accountability,” opens the door to censoring online expression and erodes privacy rights.

And former senator Hugh Segal, a progressive conservative, has called for greater oversight over security agencies, and warned against allowing Charter violations. Efforts to keep Canadians safe “should not include provisions that make us resemble what we are struggling to defeat,” he warned. That pretty much says it all.

Canadians have reason aplenty to be concerned.

Perversely, the Harper government appears to be responding to criticism from across the political spectrum with the old-time preacher’s reflex: Weak point. Pound pulpit. But rather than gin up fears to peddle damaged goods, the prime minister would do better to just fix C-51 or take it off the market.

< http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorials/2015/03/26/flaying-the-anti-terrorism-act-editorial.html >

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