Friday 28 August 2015

Bill C-51: Anti-Terrorism or Anti-Democracy?

February 26, 2015

The Harper government’s proposed anti-terrorism legislation, like most of its policies and pronouncements on almost anything, has almost nothing to do with the subject seemingly addressed here.

As with everything else, like the unqualified support for the current Israeli government or the Ukrainian situation for example, this bill has to do with solidifying the potential pro-Conservative votes for the next federal election. Everything this government has proposed or implemented (the two things are quite different) has to do with fooling unsophisticated voters into casting their votes for the Harper party. One only has to examine the reaction of professionals in every field the Conservatives have touched, to see that they always look for political gain rather than sound policies.

Everything in Bill C-51, whether potentially positive or negative, depends on proper oversight of the intelligence, security and police agencies of our country. Not review (even if it were effective, which it isn’t), but pro-active oversight. Canada’s intelligence, security, and police agencies are currently not subject to effective oversight, and they never have been since I can remember (and my professional memory goes back to before the 1970 October crisis). For some reason, Harper does not want oversight, or even effective review.

Is he a potential dictator? Or does he just have a massive inferiority complex which makes him need absolute control over everything? In any case, this new proposed legislation, which will probably be passed without proper examination, is anti-democratic because it allows the agencies involved to interfere with our individual rights as Canadian citizens.

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