The Canadian government has proposed a new bill to fight terrorism but observers say it is not needed because the government already has all the tools it needs to combat terror. They also assert that the new law gives the Canadian Security Intelligence Service additional powers that might target innocent people.
Critics say there will be a federal election this fall and the Conservative government figures that its prospects for reelection will improve if Canadians see it as best able to defend Canadians.
The bill comes at a time when some Muslims are being or have been tried for attempted terrorism. Several accused were found guilty and are serving their sentences. These foiled attempts testify to the effectiveness of Canadian security agencies. The Muslim community has assisted them by tipping them off to potential terrorism. Imams have been condemning terrorism as un-Islamic.
Though terror attempts in Canada have been relatively few, pollster Frank Graves says that they have become “inflamed issues,” mostly because of the killing last October of two unarmed Canadian soldiers in Saint-Jean-Sur-Richelieu in Quebec and at the National War Memorial in Ottawa. The killers converted to Islam after a life of crime, drug abuse and/or mental illness. Canadians are also disturbed by some Canadian Muslims who are fighting for the so-called Islamic State and who are urging Canadian Muslims to promote mayhem in Canada.
A Globe and Mail/Nanos poll of 1,000 Canadians shows that 48 percent say the security system is not adequate to combat terrorism while 44 percent say it is. Sixty-four percent, however, were “somewhat concerned” or “concerned” about the security agencies being given too much power. Sixty-five percent favored the government having the authority to remove websites or Internet posts it feels could promote terrorism.
After 9/11 the Canadian Parliament passed strong anti-terrorism laws. These were to expire in 2013 but the Conservative government extended them. The proposed new powers will remain effective unless Parliament repeals them. The bill confers new powers on the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) but provides no safeguards to prevent misuse.
The Globe and Mail wrote: “If Bill C-51 is passed, CSIS will be able to disrupt anything its political masters believe might be a threat … that includes a lot more than terrorism… . Why does it (CSIS, the Canadian spy agency) need police powers to do its job? Until now, police powers were reserved for the police - an organizations that is public, and which in a democracy must be ... CSIS works in secret. It is furthermore immune from Parliamentary oversight…. Bill C-51 is not an anti-terrorism bill. Fighting terrorism is its pretext; its language reveals a broader goal of allowing CSIS to act whenever it believes a limply defined list of security threats ‘may' - not ‘will' - occur.”
The Canadian Press wrote: “Prime Minister Stephen Harper is right to be concerned about terrorist activities, and it's vital that agencies protecting Canadians from such threats be adequately empowered. But so far, the government has not made a convincing case that its proposed new law would have stopped the earlier attacks, or would prevent future ones… .”
Toronto Star's Thomas Walkom wrote: “Stephen Harper's new anti-terror bill is tough, backward-looking and almost certainly unnecessary…. Bill C-51 explicitly gives CSIS the right to contravene both the law and the Constitution's Charter of Rights and Freedoms … it's hard to see the point of Bill C-51. In Canada, it's already a crime to plan or support terrorist activity. The RCMP already uses legal methods to disrupt planned terror attacks.”
Lawrence Martin wrote in the Globe and Mail that existing laws “have led to excesses (under the Liberals) such as the detention and torture in Syria of Maher Arar and three other Arab Canadians.” He wrote: “Increased liberties are supposed to be a cornerstone of Conservative governments. But what's more apparent with these Conservatives is an overbearing presence, whether it be in respect to curbing civil liberties, a draconian approach to criminal justice, bullying opponents, or the obsession of the Prime Minister's Office with controlling all that goes on.”
Craig Forcese, a University of Ottawa law scholar, says the legislation would grant the state impunity to trample Charter rights and turn judges into “enablers of illegality.” He said the bill would allow CSIS to conduct “warrantless clandestine operations, chill freedom of expression and harm police anti-radicalization efforts by criminalizing some of the language of terrorism and therefore discouraging frank discussion with Muslim communities.”
The Ottawa Citizen said in an editorial in part: “There are many reasons to be appalled by the haphazard, overbearing and ill-defined provisions criminalizing the general promotion of terrorism that were presented by the federal Conservative government, but worst of all is the potential they have to actually increase the likelihood of radicalization and terrorism in Canada.”
But the government has a majority in Parliament and the new bill will pass. The government is obviously hoping that it will help them to win the election this year. But whether the bill will serve Canada's interests is a different matter.
— Mohammed Azhar Ali Khan is a retired Canadian journalist, civil servant and refugee judge.
