The Conservative majority government, led by Stephen Harper, has just introduced Bill C-51, an act that stands as one of the most authoritarian pieces of anti-terror legislation in the world.
Speaking to a nation that has seen two domestic attacks in past few months, Harper is well aware that fighting fire with fear will garner wide support amongst the Canadian public.
However, rather than seek to address the root causes of terrorism by trying to curb radicalization, C-51 erodes civil liberties and circumvents democratic oversight.
The bill gives new powers to the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) to disrupt and interfere with suspected terror attacks, as well as giving CSIS more access to the private lives of Canadians. The bill also criminalizes the promotion of terrorism and allows for secrecy in court proceedings.
Moreover, police can now detain terror suspects without being charged for twice as long as before, and can also detain suspects on the suspicion that they may commit a terrorist act, rather than on certainty. Unlike in the UK, the US, and France, this bill does not offer any mechanism for legislative oversight to monitor the usage of these overreaching powers.
Civil liberties exist for a purpose. They entrench a fundamental distrust of any authoritarian law, however benevolent it may seem. Whether or not the Conservative government deserves the trust of the Canadian people with their most private and personal information (spoiler alert: they don’t!) is irrelevant.
Too often abuses of power and corruption go unchecked in a too-powerful state. Moreover, privacy and other freedoms allow us to maintain dignity in our lives. Once we surrender these rights, they will be gone forever; there will be no point in the future where the government will not be able to muster up some threat that warrants the continued suppression of civil liberties.
Similarly, the right to due process and a fair legal system cannot be contravened for any reason. These principles exist so that those who are convicted of crimes can still expect humane treatment and to be dealt with in courts that are open, fair, and diligent. They give courts a sense of legitimacy by holding them up to a higher standard. Without them, our legal system cannot rightly claim to be fair and just.
Harper has a proven track record of hiding things from Parliament. Several years ago, the then-minority Conservative government refused to hand over documents to Parliament that would likely implicate the government in having a hand in the torture of detainees in Afghanistan. Harper muzzled diplomats who would have spoken out, directly violated our charter, and even prorogued Parliament to stop further inquiry.
And now we are expected to trust Harper with even more power?
Harper himself has admitted he isn’t sure whether these new measures would have stopped the attack on Ottawa. So why introduce them at all? The motivations behind this law are purely political, designed to prey on a fearful electorate. Harper has turned terrorism into an issue that necessitates harsh laws and a ‘clash-of-ideologies’ rhetoric.
Harper’s sudden interest in protecting Canadians is disingenuous and illusory. Canadians must be diligent and demand that their civil liberties not be the collateral loss to fight an imaginary threat.
