On June 19, 2016
© By John Arkelian
No one wants to be harmed by a terrorist attack, but there’s a greater chance of being struck by lightning than being the victim of a terrorist. Of course, we all sympathize with (and grieve for) the tragic victims of extremist violence; and of course we should take reasonable precautions to forestall such outrages. But, however horrific the crimes killers commit in the name of whichever noxious ideology is in vogue these days, their atrocities are few and far between. Even if that were otherwise, protecting ourselves from them does not, cannot, and never will justify subverting our fundamental rights and our way of life as a free and open society. For one thing, no amount of intrusive security measures can ever be a guarantor of perfect safety. If a would-be killer is intent enough on doing harm – whether he is fueled by inner demons or radical beliefs – he is apt to find a way to do so. So, there’s the practical objection: Surrendering our freedom in the name of security will leave us with neither. But, more important still is the principled objection. The West stands at the pinnacle of human accomplishment and human civilization: We stand for liberty, justice, democracy, equality before the law, accountability of the state for its actions, separation of church and state, protection of minorities, and the fundamental importance of inalienable human rights. No one, no state, no cause, and no danger should, ever, supersede those inviolable human rights. That’s what our constitutions say, that’s what we pledge our allegiance to, that’s what binds us together despite our differences, and that’s what our forbears have fought (and died) to secure and defend. And yet, governments in the West have shamefully betrayed the very essence of who and what we are – violating and subverting supposedly inalienable rights in the trumped-up name of protecting us from terrorists. In reply, we say: Better some danger from a madman or fanatic with a gun or bomb than an incrementally constructed police-state where we have lost the very things that make us who we are.
Canada, like its sibling south of the 49th Parallel and its friends elsewhere in the West, adopted practices, policies, and repressive laws in the wake of 9/11 that pose a graver threat to all of us than any nut with a gun or a bomb ever did. Our governments’ disdainful and perfidious disregard for our core rights and first principles pose an existential threat to our entire way of life – a threat no band of murderous thugs can ever hope to match. One year ago, in June 2015, the Anti-terrorism Act, 2015 (a.k.a. Bill C-51) became law in Canada. It wasn’t the first such unwarranted, unconstitutional, and repugnant measure to be adopted here, only the latest. It allows the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) to obtain warrants to commit just about any crime. Indeed, it gives judges power to authorize CSIS to violate even the paramount law of the land – the constitutionally-entrenched (and supposedly well-nigh inviolable) Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Canadian Bar Association (CBA) argued that such provisions could bring “the entire Charter into jeopardy” and that the Act “undermines the rule of law and goes against the fundamental role of judges as the protectors of Canada’s constitutional rights.”
The CBA also decried Bill C-51’s “vague and overly broad language.” It criminalizes speech, vaguely making it unlawful to “advocate or promote” terrorism, even in the absence of any intent to commit violence. It gives CSIS an expansively vague authority to “take measures” to counter activities which it deems to threaten Canada’s security. And it expands the definition of threats to national security in such a way as to potentially encompass almost anything and everything, potentially even legitimate non-violent protest by environmentalists, aboriginal groups, or other dissidents. It greatly expands the power of CSIS and a myriad of other government agencies to share information about people who simply engage in protests: Indeed, it outrageously permits them to disclose our personal information “to anyone, for any purpose,” as they see fit. It further lowers the bar on what we would otherwise rightly call unlawful confinement, calling it by a more palatable name (“protective custody”). It mandates an unprecedented attack on personal privacy, opening the door to what the federal Privacy Commissioner warned would be a new governmental power “to know virtually everything about everyone” – words that smack of an Orwellian Big Brother, not the Canada we know and defend. And it abjectly fails to build-in strong (or even adequate) all-party Parliamentary oversight of CSIS and other agencies acting in the purported name of national security.
That seems a clear enough warning, a clarion call even, from the country’s legal professionals. But the Conservative Government of Stephen Harper was contemptuous of the havoc their new Bill would wreck upon our core rights and our core values. And, they were supported by Justin Trudeau’s Liberals (who were then the third most numerous party in Parliament): Trudeau and Company professed to be uncomfortable with some unspecified parts of Bill C-51, but they nevertheless supported it in toto, promising to revisit the new law if and when they took office. In contrast, despite initial prevarication, the NDP under Thomas Mulcair (which then constituted the Official Opposition) ended up in four-square opposition to Bill C-51: Their past leader Ed Broadbent rightly observed that it “undermines our rights and liberties and does a disservice to every citizen and to the free society we all cherish.” At the time, it was widely supposed that the Liberals disliked Bill C-51 but cravenly feared that voting against it would permit the Harperites to paint them as “weak on national security.” So, it was supposed, they held their noses and voted for the noxious new legislation, subject to their promise that they would revisit and modify certain (unspecified) provisions, when and if they came to power. Come to power they did on October 20, 2015, with a majority government and nice-sounding promises to replace the dour Harper style with a sunnier one of their own. Eight months later, in June 2016, they have not lifted a finger to revisit, let alone modify, a piece of legislation that they ought never to have voted for in the first place. By voting for Bill C-51 – a set of provisions which are utterly inimical to our core rights, our fundamental values, and our constitution – in the first place and then by failing to revisit it once they achieved control of government eight months ago, the Liberals, like the Conservative before them, have rendered themselves unfit to govern.
John Arkelian is an award-winning author and journalist with a background in international and constitutional law, criminal prosecutions, and diplomacy.
Copyright © 2016 by John Arkelian