Primer released on Bill C-51, the government's latest attempt to expand its security powers

CIPPIC, OpenMedia and Canadian Journalists for Free Expression have released a primer on Bill C-51, the government's latest initiative to expand its state security apparatus. As the primer explains the Bill, which has been opposed from broad segments of Canadian society, signals a dramatic new direction for Canadian security. Presented as anti-terror legislation, the Bill adopts an excessive approach that will harm online innovation, political discourse and our civil liberties. It will reverse Canada’s rich multicultural heritage and replace it with an atmosphere of fear, distrust and racial profiling – where neighbours are encouraged to turn on neighbours on the basis of ‘reasonable fears’. The Bill was drafted and defended in an atmosphere openly hostile to civil liberties, and this is reflected in every element of it. One element of the Bill even seeks to allow our spy agencies to violate the Charter of Rights and Freedoms – our most vital protection against egregious state intrusion into our lives. It signals a return to a time when our security agencies were empowered to carry out dirty tricks against our citizens – and did so with impunity.

It fails to address long standing and well-documented problems with Canada’s already excessively broad security powers, the misuse of which has led to the torture, detention, flight restriction and privacy invasion of many innocent Canadians since they were introduced post 9/11. Innocent Canadians’ lives have been ruined. This Bill not only fails to remedy those flaws, it replicates and expands the underlying problems without adding any meaningful safeguards to ensure the expansive powers it grants will not be similarly abused. It is little wonder that few who have carefully examined the Bill can fully support it in its current form. In spite of this, the government is currently rushing the Bill through not just one house of parliament, but both.

Bill C-51: A Primer [PDF]