Bill C 51

Bill C-51 or the Anti-Terrorism Act was a bill brought forward by the Conservative government on January 30th, 2015 for its first reading. The bill was created because of the growing threat from terrorists around the world and in Canada itself. The bill was proposed to help Canadian authorities share information between departments and to aid in the prevention of terrorist attacks being carried out.  A majority Conservative government lead by Stephen Harper passed the bill; the Liberal Party of Canada also supported the bill.  The New Democratic Party of Canada who were the official opposition at the time of the bill; opposed the bill.

This new law is violating the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.  The guarantees of the Charter are not absolute. In the Charter itself it points this out in section 1. It also states that any limits imposed by Parliament on our rights and freedoms must be subject to “reasonable limits prescribed by law as can be demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society.” The bill fails to do just that. Part 3 of the bill makes amendments to the Criminal Code, “an offence of knowingly advocating or promoting the commission of terrorism offences in general”[3]. The amendment is too broad and cannot differentiate between freedom of expression made for innocent purpose and promotion of terrorism. There has been no set test to determine what classifies as the promotion of terrorism. Citizens should not fear what they say because it could be taken as promoting terrorism.

Part 1 enacts the Security of Canada Information Sharing Act (SCISA), which authorizes the Government of Canada institutions to disclose information to Government of Canada institutions that have jurisdiction or responsibilities in respect of the activities that undermine the security of Canada. The law allows government agencies that have nothing to do with national security such as the Canadian Revenue Agency and Health Canada to share information with each other without a warrant if they believe that it is relevant to national security. This essentially allows the government to know virtually everything about anyone. With so much history of human rights abuse in the name of national security not only in Canada but internationally. These laws not only affect those suspected of being a terrorist threat but, affects all Canadians.

SCISA does not clearly define what “relevant” means. This allows for open interpretation when using the act to gather information. This also furthers the proof that not only threats to Canada and its national interests will be affected. This act allows for every law-abiding citizen to have his or her life looked into as long as it is “relevant” to national security. Not having this clearly defined will as stated earlier allow for abuse. The Purpose of the Privacy Act “To extend the present laws of Canada that protect the privacy of individuals with respect to personal information about themselves held by a government institution and that provide individuals with a right of access to that information”. This is clearly violated by part 1 of SCISA and should not have become law.