Terror bill a ‘call for action’
New legislation gives security officials greatly expanded powers
OTTAWA — Sweeping new anti- terrorism legislation introduced by the federal government Friday would make it illegal to promote or advocate terrorism acts, a crime punishable by up to five years in prison.
It would allow security officials to block websites, and government agencies to share citizens’ personal information for the purposes of battling terrorism.
And it would include placing people on a no-fly list if they planned to travel abroad to join groups such as the Islamic State (also known as ISIS or ISIL).
The legislation, titled the Anti- terrorism Act 2015, is the most dramatic package of new laws since the Anti-terrorism Act of 2001, passed in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks against the United States.
The new legislation would relax privacy law restrictions to allow passport and other government officials to share information on passport applicants with national security officials.
And it would lower the legal threshold for police to obtain a warrant to arrest people who have committed no crimes and hold them in custody for up to seven days, instead of the current 48 hours.
Many of the proposed powers would require prior consent from federal or provincial attorneys general, and need courtapproved warrants. As well, the review organization that oversees the operations of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service would be required to report annually on CSIS’s use of the new “threat disruption warrants.” Still, the package has raised concerns from some civil libertarians.
But, speaking at a community centre north of Toronto, Prime Minister Stephen Harper defended the changes, saying that “jihadist terrorism” is the greatest threat the world faces.
“We cannot avoid the stark reality, jihadist terrorism is not a future possibility, it is a present reality,” Harper said. “Violent jihadism is not just a danger somewhere else — it seeks to harm us here in Canada, in our cities and in our neighbourhoods through horrific acts.”
“It would be a grave mistake to ignore their threats.”
Harper said the bill will help police and security agencies combat terrorism, but added it would be unfair to give the impression that it would prevent all attacks.
“We will continue to do our best and we will continue to move forward with other measures as threats evolve.”
Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney said the killing of a soldier in St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Que., and the shootings on Oct. 22 in Ottawa, in which Cpl. Nathan Cirillo was killed, showed the government it needed to act.
“It was and still is a call for action,” Blaney said. “We then said we would not overreact, but we would not underreact.”
The proposed law would allow the CSIS agents to physically “disrupt” threats to the security of Canada, including terrorism, espionage, sabotage, foreign-influenced activities and domestic subversion.
A Justice Department official said the new, police-like powers for CSIS agent will not conflict with the anti-terrorism investigations carried out by the RCMP.
“They’re going to work closer together,” he said.
Until now, CSIS has only collected and analyzed information about threats to Canada, and has advised the government on how to react.
Now the government wants CSIS to start taking action to address threats to Canada. That could include anything from disrupting websites and social media accounts to intercepting goods and weapons.
In addition, it wants the Federal Court to be able to compel third parties to co-operate with CSIS. An example would be a telecommunications firm being forced to provide the spy agency with cellphone records or to block a website.
CSIS would also need a warrant to deal with a threat if doing so would contravene the Charter of Rights and Freedoms or the law.
But CSIS will not require a warrant or other authorization if its interventions do not run up against the charter or established law, and the proposed legislation does not re-establish CSIS’s internal watchdog or create any new oversight body.