Terrorism bill aims to help prosecutors

Old legislation too vague to hold up in courts

As the government faces pressure over why it isn’t prosecuting more suspected terrorists who have returned from fighting overseas, Canada’s public safety minister says its new security legislation will at least make it easier to charge someone for promoting acts of terrorism.

On Thursday, MPs started their study of Bill C- 59, a massive bill that scales back some of the controversial national security legislation, known as Bill C- 51, passed by the previous Conservative government in 2015.

One notable change is around the definition of criminal terrorism speech, which C- 51 defined as: “knowingly advocates or promotes the commission of terrorism offences in general.”

Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale t old t he Commons national security committee this wording is so vague it’s unenforceable in court, which is why no charges have ever been laid under it.

He pointed out some even speculated a 2015 Conservative election ad that used ISIL propaganda footage to raise doubts about Justin Trudeau’s toughness could have been captured under this definition. ( The ad does not appear to be online anymore.)

C- 59 changes the Criminal Code wording to: “counsels another person to commit a terrorism offence,” which Goodale says will be much more likely to stand up in court because there is plenty of existing case law around what qualifies as “counselling.”

“We’ve made it more precise without affecting its efficacy, and I think made it more likely that charges can be laid and successfully prosecuted,” he said.

But it is unclear whether C- 59 will do anything to make it easier to prosecute people who have returned from fighting overseas with terrorist groups such as ISIL.

Goodale said there have been charges laid against two returned fighters over the past two years (and none laid before that), despite the government’s public estimate that 60 people have returned from places where terrorist groups are operating.

The main obstacle to pursuing charges is that intelligence gathered about a suspect often can’t be used in a courtroom without jeopardizing sensitive security operations, and Goodale said the government didn’t address it in C- 59 because it’s still figuring out what to do.

“It will require further examination and legal analysis to figure out what is the right way to get over this problem,” he said. “It’s not just our problem; every other democratic country in the world has the same challenge and we’re all sharing ideas about how to do it properly.”

C- 59 goes much further than just adjusting aspects of C- 51. It also completely changes how oversight is conducted on national security agencies, creating one “super- watchdog” agency with a mandate to oversee all national security operations across multiple agencies.

There has been controversy over the fact the bill still allows for widespread sharing of personal information between security agencies, and Goodale specifically mentioned that as one area the government is willing to hear advice on about amendments.

The bill also expands the mandate of Canada’s electronic spy agency, the Communications Security Establishment, to conduct active cyber operations against terrorist groups and other governments, and to partner with the military on foreign operations. ( The CSE’s role is kept to collecting signals i ntell i gence, defending against threats and assisting other agencies if requested.)

CSE chief Greta Bossenmaier appeared before the committee on Thursday, where she faced questions from the NDP’s Matthew Dubé on whether a section of the legislation on gathering and analyzing publiclyavailable information could allow for the profiling of Canadian citizens.

Bossenmaier responded by pointing out that all of the agency’s work had to be done in the furtherance of its mandate, which restricts it from targeting Canadians.

“It has to be in relation to our mandate, and we are a foreign signals intelligence organization; we focus on foreign targets and foreign threats to Canada. So we don’t have a mandate to focus on Canadians.”

Speaking to reporters after, Goodale said there is more news coming in the next few months on the government’s cyber- security agenda.

“You will see from the government through the course of this winter at least three specific initiatives to enhance our governance arrangement around how we deal with cyber, enhance the resources that are provided to deal with cyber- security, and to make our response mechanisms a lot more nimble,” he said.

The committee’s study of the bill will continue with t estimony f r om outside groups and experts.

WE’VE MADE IT MORE PRECISE WITHOUT AFFECTING ITS EFFICACY.