Stephen Harper and My Part in his Downfall (2)

Bill C-51 was enacted earlier this year with the apparent intention of giving the federal government more power to stop terrorism while balancing that power with a respect for civil liberties.  Since there haven’t been any terrorist acts in Canada for years it would seem the government is doing a good job with the powers they have already, so I don’t know why they wanted more.  According to the papers the opposition proposed more than 100 amendments to the bill, of which the Conservatives accepted none but introduced four that they came up with themselves.

This Act allows government organizations, if they have files on you, to share them with each other, lets the government ground people who they suspect might be planning terrorism, without telling them, lets the government apply to judges to impose recognizances on possible terrorists and make them wear electronic bracelets etc, criminalizes any communication that promotes terrorism and allows the government to confiscate written or electronic materials that promote terrorism,  allows witnesses to give evidence against suspected terrorists without being identified or cross examined, allows the Canadian Security Intelligence Service to do James Bond type stuff (rather than being a mere intelligence agency), while letting them get warrants to set aside the Canadian Constitution (temporarily), allows the government to appeal any decision at any stage made by a judge in an immigration case if they don’t like the decision, while the right of the non-citizen to appeal is still restricted to matters of general importance, and allows the government to present information to a judge that that non-citizen is doesn't know about and so cannot contradict or challenge.  Seems innocuous enough but in fact it’s been a controversial subject.

A couple of fair and balanced reviews of the legislation by legal experts.

Craig Forcese and Kent Roach

http://thewalrus.ca/bill-c-51-the-good-the-bad-and-the-truly-ugly/

Clayton Ruby and Nader R. Hasan

https://www.policyalternatives.ca/publications/monitor/bill-c-51-legal-primer

Lists are fun, so here's the Federal agencies who can hand your information around.

Canada Border Services Agency

Canada Revenue Agency

Canadian Armed Forces
Canadian Food Inspection Agency

Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission 
Canadian Security Intelligence Service

Communications Security Establishment
Department of Citizenship and Immigration
Department of Finance
Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development
Department of Health
Department of National Defence
Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness
Department of Transport
Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada
Public Health Agency of CanadaRoyal Canadian Mounted Police