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Bill C-51 Scaled Back

The federal government is making some amendments to Bill C-51, its controversial anti-terror legislation, to address concerns it grants too much power to security agencies. It is narrowing the definition of a threat to national security to make it clearer that lawful protest and civil disobedience are not security threats. It is also removing language that allowed unlimited sharing of Canadians' personal information between government agencies and with foreign governments. However, critics say the amendments do not fix the bill's core issues, such as enabling Canada's spy agency to obtain court approval to violate suspects' Charter rights.

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34 views1 page

Bill C-51 Scaled Back

The federal government is making some amendments to Bill C-51, its controversial anti-terror legislation, to address concerns it grants too much power to security agencies. It is narrowing the definition of a threat to national security to make it clearer that lawful protest and civil disobedience are not security threats. It is also removing language that allowed unlimited sharing of Canadians' personal information between government agencies and with foreign governments. However, critics say the amendments do not fix the bill's core issues, such as enabling Canada's spy agency to obtain court approval to violate suspects' Charter rights.

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Lisa
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© © All Rights Reserved
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Tories to scale back scope of anti-terror bill to allay concerns

it goes too far


STEVEN CHASE
OTTAWA The Globe and Mail
Published Friday, Mar. 27 2015, 4:39 PM EDT
Last updated Friday, Mar. 27 2015, 9:30 PM EDT
The federal government is rolling back the scope of its controversial anti-terror legislation to address
fears it grants too much power to security and intelligence agencies.
As part of a series of amendments to Bill C-51, its narrowing the definition of activity that
undermines the security of Canada to make it more certain that people practising civil disobedience
are not swept up in new measures to guard against threats to this country.
Critics say this particular change is important, but they say the amendments overall are fairly minimal
and dont address core problems with the legislation, including how it would enable Canadas spy
agency to obtain the power from judges to breach the Charter rights of suspects.
The Harper government hasnt officially released the amendments, but summaries of what it has
planned were circulated among media outlets Friday. The bill as written now says threats to national
security do not include lawful advocacy, protest, dissent and artistic expression. But
environmentalists, aboriginals and civil-rights advocates were concerned the word lawful implied that
some forms of dissent might be a threat. Critics had raised the example of pipeline blockades or a
street protest where demonstrators had not obtained a permit.
The government is therefore removing the word lawful from the wording to broaden the exemption.
As we have said for weeks we are open to amendments that make sense and that improve the AntiTerrorism Act 2015, said Jean-Christophe de Le Rue, director of communications for Public Safety
Minister Steven Blaney.
In a second amendment, the Conservatives are removing what appeared to be an unlimited licence for
government departments and agencies to share personal information about Canadians and
commercially confidential details of businesses. As C-51 reads now, it gives federal officials the right
to using that information, or further disclosing it to any person, for any purpose. Critics feared this
could including passing information to foreign governments, for instance.
University of Ottawa legal expert Errol Mendes said he was flabbergasted that you would have such a
provision in any bill in the first place. He said the removal of this was necessary but it is hardly a
victory. That was outrageous anyway so getting rid of it was not much of a giveaway.
In a third amendment, the Tories are adding wording to C-51 to explicitly guarantee that Canadas spy
agency is not being given the power to arrest people. The legislation gives the Canadian Security
Intelligence Service the power to intervene and disrupt threats to national security, a major change in
its mandate. To date, CSIS has been limited to merely collecting intelligence and handing off matters
to the RCMP.
Craig Forcese, an associate law professor at the University of Ottawa, says what hes seen of the
proposed wording for the CSIS amendment only further confuses the matter. He said the bill doesnt
address fundamental concerns such as measures that will allow a judge to grant CSIS the right to
break the law and interfere with suspects basis rights.
Theres no backing down on the idea that federal court judges will authorize unconstitutional activity
by the service, Prof. Forcese said, referring to the spy agency.

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