Canada’s House of Commons on Tuesday is poised to pass Bill C-51, a so-called “anti-terror” law, despite widespread outcry from civil liberties advocates who say the legislation would allow law enforcement to spy on civilians and violate Canadians’ constitutional rights with little or no accountability.
The bill, introduced by the Conservative Party and backed by Prime Minister Stephen Harper, would give up to 17 government agencies access to Canadian citizens’ private information, including their financial status, medical history, and religious and political beliefs. The Canadian Security Intelligence Service would also be authorized to spy on Canadians and foreign nationals living in the country, while the Royal Canadian Mounted Police would be granted increased power to make preventive arrests.
Opponents of the bill have rallied for months under the banners #StopC51 and #RejectFear. According to digital policy advocacy group OpenMedia, the bill “disproportionately targets Indigenous communities, environmental activists, dissidents, and Muslims, many of whom are already subjected to questionable and overreaching powers by security officials, [and] will make it easier and ostensibly lawful for government to continue infringing upon the rights of peaceful people.”
OpenMedia communications director David Christopher wrote in an op-ed for Rabble published Monday, “This government has left Canadians with a stark privacy deficit, and we’ll all need to work together to address it. We need a co-ordinated plan to roll back mass surveillance, and restore our traditional privacy and democratic rights.”
“The verdict from Canadians is clear—Bill C-51 will recklessly endanger our rights and our privacy, while making us less safe.”
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“The verdict from Canadians is clear—Bill C-51 will recklessly endanger our rights and our privacy, while making us less safe,” Christopher said in a separate statement on Monday. “The top privacy and security experts in the land are warning about the damage this extreme legislation will lead to in terms of the reckless disclosure of the sensitive information of innocent Canadians.
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