Reversing an ugly legacy
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberals are moving with commendable speed to reverse some of Stephen Harper’s meaner legal legacies, including the Conservative government’s wars on the niqab and citizenship rights. These issues reeked of injustice and fairly polluted the recent federal election campaign.
Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould brought down the curtain Monday on the Harper government’s unwarranted and unlawful attempt to prevent devout Muslim women from wearing face-coverings such as the niqab at citizenship ceremonies.
The Federal Court of Appeal rightly found the Muslim-phobic ban to be illegal, a violation of the Citizenship Act, which allows for the greatest possible religious freedom in administering the oath of citizenship. But the Tories, undeterred, decided to ask the Supreme Court to hear an appeal on the case. Wisely, Wilson-Raybould has now withdrawn that request.
The Liberal government has also asked the Federal Court to suspend proceedings in cases involving stripping people of citizenship, as Ottawa consults on a new policy. That, too, is a welcome development.
Canadians who scarcely recognized themselves in the Harper government’s narrow, ideologydriven legislation and regulations will hail these moves. Let’s hope this heralds the start of a broader Liberal course correction that will roll back more of the previous government’s worst excesses.
Apart from wrongly targeting Muslim women, the Conservatives brought in draconian security legislation that threatens civil rights. They made it easier for people to be stripped of citizenship. They stuffed the Criminal Code with needlessly harsh and punitive penalties, seeking to tie judges’ hands. They made it harder for people fleeing countries deemed safe to make a case that they are bona fide refugees, and denied them health care.
As the Star’s Tonda MacCharles reports, the Harper government’s obtuse overreach is extensive. Given the growing number of court challenges to these laws, the Liberals should fix what’s wrong, as speedily as possible, then turn their attention to other issues including physician-assisted suicide, aboriginal justice, the prostitution laws and marijuana legalization. Here are a few places to start: Bill C-51: The draconian Anti-Terrorism Act, 2015, defines threats to security too broadly, co-opts judges to authorize our spies to violate the Constitution, criminalizes free speech and threatens not only privacy rights but also the right to due process and mobility rights. It needs major revision. The Liberals voted for the law but have vowed to repeal its worst aspects. Citizenship: Under Bill C-24, the Tories gave government the power to yank citizenship from dual nationals who commit serious crimes such as terrorism, in effect creating two-tier citizenship and validating banishment for select groups depending on their national or ethnic background. The Liberals plan to repeal this obnoxious law. Sentencing: The Tories tried hard to tie judges’ hands by bringing in a slew of mandatory minimum sentences for crimes including those involving guns, drugs and sex abuse. They also imposed a victim surcharge that criminals must pay, even if they have no money. And made it harder to get pardons. The Liberals promise to review much of this. Refugees: The Tories abruptly cut medical benefits for failed refugee claimants and others, even if they cannot go home. Federal Court rightly deemed the new policy to be “cruel and unusual” because it puts lives at risk. The Liberals have vowed to restore the benefits. They also promise to provide an avenue of appeal for refugees deemed inadmissible here because they come from designated safe countries.
On Harper’s watch, Canadian law grew ever more heedless of civil rights, contemptuous of the judiciary, unreasonably punitive and unfriendly to minorities and refugees. Canadians voted for something better on Oct. 19. The Liberals have work to do, restoring the public’s trust. The niqab was a start. It must not end there.
The Liberals begin to reverse some of the more contemptible Tory practices