Seven civil liberties and human rights organizations continue to call on the Conservative government to drop Bill C-51 as parliamentarians get set to study a revised version of the anti-terror bill.
Government sources have told the Star the Conservatives will propose four amendments Tuesday as the Commons public safety committee starts the final process of studying the bill.
Meanwhile a Senate committee began its look at the bill today, even before the Commons finishes with it, against a backdrop of ongoing opposition.
The Conservative government suggests it will clarify that protest or dissent will not be targeted by the bill, by deleting the word “lawful” from the C51 exemptions from stronger information-sharing powers. A second amendment would clarify that CSIS agents will not have the authority to arrest people as part of new legislated powers to “disrupt” threats to national security. A third amendment would limit national security information sharing among 17 government and security agencies, rather than “with any person for any purpose.” And the fourth would drop wording that could allow the minister of Public Safety to order an airline to “do anything that, in the Minister’s opinion, is reasonable and necessary” to prevent someone on the “no-fly” list from travelling.
The amendments have not yet been formally tabled.
Amnesty International Canada, the Canadian and the B.C. Civil Liberties Associations, the Canadian Muslim Lawyers Association, the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group, La Ligue des Droits et Libertés, and the National Council of Canadian Muslims issued a joint statement Monday saying that “the Bill has to go.”
“The bill doesn’t include fundamental legal protections,” said Sukanya Pillay, general counsel for the Canadian Civil Liberties Association.
Amnesty’s Canadian head, Alex Neve, said the bill should not give “legislated power to CSIS to violate the Charter of rights” and requiring prior judicial authorization for such breaches is merely an attempt to offer “a sheen of legitimacy” to a bad bill.
Neve said, “We do not uphold national security by inviting judges to become complicit in Charter violations. Bill C-51 does not understand the central importance of human rights in upholding national security.”
Green Party leader Elizabeth May accused Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney in the Commons of misrepresenting the advice of retired Supreme Court judge John Major, who she said backed Opposition arguments that the bill needs increased oversight.
Blaney said the bill includes sufficient oversight already, but critics remain unconvinced.