Canada's New Anti-Terrorism Legislation Echoes The PATRIOT Act, Expands Spying Powers And Government Reach
from the let-no-tragedy-go-unexploited dept
Canada looks to be next in line for broadly-written, government-expanding "anti-terror" legislation. This new legislation was prompted by a couple of recent attacks on government employees. The first attack involved a man said to be "inspired by the Islamic State" who ran over two soldiers in a Quebec parking lot before being killed. The second attack struck a bit closer to home, when a gunman shot a soldier at the national war memorial before making his way into Parliament.
An attack on the government's turf will always provoke a legislative reaction. One might think some security fixes at Parliament would be in the offing, but Prime Minister Stephen Harper has much bigger plans.
Canada will introduce new anti-terror laws that will make it a crime to encourage terrorism against Canadians, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced Friday in response to two recent attacks.If this sounds eerily close to the laws enacted after the 9/11 attacks, there's a reason for that. For those with government expansion and broader spying powers on the mind, a scary, but ultimately ineffectual, attack on prime government property is an opportunity -- not an isolated incident. Peter Watts (an "an awkward hybrid of biologist, science-fiction author, and [according to the US Department of Homeland Security] convicted felon/tewwowist") sums up the birthing of this horrendous legislation beautifully at his No More Moods, Ads or Cutesy Fucking Icons blog:
The laws will also allow anyone suspected of being involved in a terror plot to be detained without charge for up to seven days, and empower Canada's spy agency to thwart attacks directly in a significant expansion of their powers.
We had a shooting up here in Canada the other day. Like most things Canadian it was a modest, self-effacing affair, nothing that even a couple of losers from Columbine would write home about: a single death, a geriatric hero. A Prime Minister cowering in the closet, scribbling back-of-the-napkin notes on how best to exploit this unexpected opportunity.Canada's Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) will receive broadened powers. It will be allowed to directly perform "police work" rather than turning intelligence over to law enforcement agencies. It will also be able to disrupt Canadian citizens' travel plans unannounced.
He didn’t have to think very hard. Harper’s always seemed almost pathetically eager to turn Canada into a wannabe iteration of the US— think the dweeby eight-year-old, desperate to emulate his idolized older brother— and the Patriot Act has, I suspect, always been his Beacon on the Hill (or his Castle Anthrax grail-shaped beacon, depending on your cultural referents). So our beloved leader is once again trying to resurrect all those measures he couldn’t quite sneak into C-52, or C-10, or C-30— all those measures that no sane citizen would ever oppose, unless of course we chose to “stand with the child pornographers“. You know the list: lowered evidentiary standards. Increased powers of police surveillance. Increased powers of detention and “preventative arrest”. Increased data sharing with the US.
Basically all that stuff they were doing anyway with impunity, only now more of it will be legal.
The new law will also allow the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, the country's spy service, to directly approach terror suspects in order to disrupt their plans. CSIS is currently permitted only to collect intelligence and pass the information on to police.We've seen how well secret "no-fly" lists work here in the US. Once you're on the list, you can't get off it, barring an expensive lawsuit. We've also seen how well the US government's "terrorist watchlist" works, what with 40% of those "watchlisted" having "no recognized terrorist group affiliation." If this legislation passes (and seeing that Parliament is stocked with Harper supporters, there's no reason to believe it won't), Canadians can expect the same sort of secretive incompetence. Supposedly, citizens will be able to challenge their appearance on the "no fly" list, but given the wording used in the legislation, they may as well throw their written requests into the nearest wastebasket.
The spy agency will now be able to cancel plane or other travel reservations made by Canadians suspected of being involved in terrorism. The new activities by CSIS will require approval by a judge. Police already have many of these powers that CSIS will acquire but the government wanted the spy agency to be able to act right away if they see a threat.
If the Minister does not make a decision in respect of the application within 90 days after the day on which the application is received, or within any further period that is agreed on by the Minister and the applicant, the Minister is deemed to have decided not to remove the applicant’s name from the list.Not making a decision is one of the easiest things anyone can do. Not making a decision in a timely manner is even easier. The "administrative recourse" process effectively ends the minute it hits the Minister's desk. To take someone off the list is to take a risk. To simply do nothing for 90 days is easier and safer.
Harper himself has been selling the bill to the public, tossing out statements no public should willingly get behind.
Under current law it is a crime to make a specific threat. The new law will make it a crime to call for a terror attack against Canadians generally. It includes any public threat including online.Wonderful. This is sort of zero-tolerance thinking that gets careless Twitter users arrested. "Joking" about non-specific threats will soon be indistinguishable from actually making terroristic threats -- and subjects jokers to a possible five-year prison sentence.
"We cannot tolerate this any more than we tolerate people that make jokes about bomb threats at airports," Harper said. "Anyone engaging in that kind of activity is going to face the full force of the law in the future."
New problems also arise for website owners.
If the court is satisfied, on a balance of probabilities, that the material is available to the public and is terrorist propaganda or computer data that makes terrorist propaganda available, it may order the computer system’s custodian to delete the material.So, linking to "terrorist propaganda" is illegal, which would make retweeting anything terrorist-related a potentially criminal act. And the legislation provides no safeguard for websites and platforms that host or transmit third-party content. Instead of addressing the users who post this content, the government is looking to just pin it on whoever's URL happens to be at the top of the webpage.
As for the CSIS, the nation's spy service will enjoy expanded powers to spy on both foreigners and domestic citizens alike. The legislation suggests the spy agency's domestic powers will be more limited inside Canada…
The Service shall not take measures to reduce a threat to the security of Canada if those measures will contravene a right or freedom guaranteed by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms or will be contrary to other Canadian law…before going on to strip away most of these protections by the end of the sentence:
...unless the Service is authorized to take them by a warrant issued under section 21.1.Section 21.1 is being heavily amended as well and ties warrant application rejection/approval to :
...the facts relied on to justify the belief on reasonable grounds that the warrant continues to be required to enable the Service to take the measures specified in it to reduce a threat to the security of Canada…Goodbye, probable cause and say hello to national security exceptions and a lowered bar of "reasonable grounds." It's the PATRIOT Act all over again. Only the flag in "flag-waving" has changed. It's not that legislators actively wish for attacks on their constituents and fellow government employees. It's just that they're so quick to leverage attacks into expanded government power.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: anti-terror, canada, patriot act, privacy, stephen harper, surveillance
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
[ link to this | view in thread ]
As P.M. Harper is little more than a US puppet forwarding US interests, this sort of thing was expected. It's looking like Canada might not in the foreseeable future have another leader like Chretien, who had the courage to criticize the US about the Iraq invasion and other criminal undertakings.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
I wish we could learn from the US's mistake
We do have a hope that we can get rid of this legislation they are going to push through. We have an election coming this fall and if we can get another party to agree to get rid of this awful legislation, then we would have a chance, but good luck ever getting a politician to do anything that may take away powers from them.
Looks like we are as screwed as the USA for this and will have to live with it till the citizens revolt and take control of the country, but that won't happen as everyone is too self absorbed with taking selfies and what kim k did last night.
Looks like we are screwed.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
At least the Canadians had to write the damn law...
Timeline-
In 'merica...
September 11, butt-heads fly aeroplane in to buidings and people die.
October 2, (21 days later) butt-heads dust off ready-made, 340 page or so long, jsut add terrorist attack, horrible law that will generate more terrorists.
In Canada...
October 22, 2014 butt-heads try and shoot lots of fols, and suck at it.
January 30, 2015, (40 days later) butt-heads announce that, at some time in the indeterminate future, they will introduce a stupid new law that will generate more terrorists.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Terrorism seems to encompass everything these days. Including posting generalized comments on the internet. I might even be committing a terrorist act by posting this comment. I'm honestly not sure if I am or not. I'd say there's a 60% chance I could be thrown in prison for posting this comment.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Well Canada, France, and any other country in the world whose puppet leaders are willing to follow the footsteps of corruption, totalitarianism, and failure by design (the UK and Australia already have), I was right. I tried to warn you, but it looks like you'd be getting "the government you deserve" soon. It's already happened with copyright and privacy, and if you continue your snooty attitudes and cognitive dissonance, you'd all be living in America in the worst possible way.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Plotting against the US from canada is still OK.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Could have fooled me
Given how eager so many politicians are to take advantage of events like that, in order to push their pet bills and grab as much power as they can as quick as possible after a shooting or something similar, it wouldn't surprise me in the least if at least some of them were actively wishing for an event that they could use as an excuse, without caring in the slightest about the cost.
'So what if a few people end up dead, in the end, the bill I'm trying to get passed is meant to protect many more(and completely by coincidence, make me wealthy and/or powerful), if that's what it takes to get it passed, it was a worthwhile sacrifice.'
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Could have fooled me
Worked for the Reichstag fire
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
An entity that justifies CRIMINAL behaviour
Surveilance = Criminal behaviour
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
Soldiers are NOT civilians and thus can not be victims of terrorism.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
All Hail the King!
Does New Zealand already have War Time Anti-Citizen Laws as their standard?
Of all the White-dude English-speaking Nations that make up the totality of the 5 Eyes Cabal, it alone appears to be utterly silent on its plans to enslave its people. Odd that.
Now that Canada has finally figured out a way to initiate the 5 Eyes New World Order, public arrest and detention system, it shouldn't be too long before that country starts joining the US/EU in the sacred ritual of sacrifice to mammon, known as kidnapping, torturing and murdering its citizens for fun and profit.
Canada has of course never really been a Democracy. Its a Dominion and its laws have always been based on Money as the Measure of a Man and as the Dominating Factor in Society.
Its people of course, still think its a democracy because they get to fill in ballots with names on them and stick them in boxes before the preselected leader claims the throne.
To see the Harp-Play-er screwing the Canadian People once more, is pretty much all one can expect to see from Canadian Pseudo-politics and King Harper, and this latest legislation was already written before the idiot they programmed and drugged, did his skit on the Hill, so this move was purely inevitable.
I would still like to know why New Zealand is so quiet though. Are they using that country as the new country club for the estates of the kings of the five eyes nations?
After all, the assholes in charge of the destruction of society will need a safe haven from which to give orders to their armies.
Time will tell.
---
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
In all cases, Harper is on the way out, he was so mad the whole time he was minority gov, I'd like to see some of that until his eventual disappearance and the reversal of many dumb laws the other parties are the antithesis of (yes, even the milquetoast left of the Liberals would be against things like removing door to door mail delivery because of made up statistics... amongst many other things. I can't believe I'll have to drive 10 minutes to get my mail like if I lived in the countryside, and I'll bet my mailbox in those community boxes will be smaller than the one I have right now, so that'll mean more fucking waiting till the afternoon (when I'm not there) for the delivery jackoff in his truck to leave me a note and then have to show up at the post office every time I order a goddamn vinyl record. I know the NDP is against the law spoken of in this article, mostly, some of the MP's are bizarrely acquiescing, like when Harper went to Israel's Knesset last year to declare all Israeli murders of Palestinians to be good shit and that Israel was a theocracy until he got heckled by Arab MP's. They should just have thrown their shoes in his face.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: All Hail the King!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
All Hail King Harper - hip hip Whore Hey!
No sweat there. Once full public surveillance is "legally" established in Canada, (and they have so few rights in a Dominion, that it won't take long to strip the public of what they have) there will be far fewer mistakes made there, than were made early on, due to lessons learned over the last decade in GB and the USA.
Also, in Canada, the Truth-Free Press prints/disseminates only government approved "news" and so any mistakes that do occur, will never be made public and any protests by Canuks who find themselves on the wrong list, will never be heard.
In 2001 I believe it was, a Canadian judge gave the federal government of Canada one year to fix its Medical Marijuana Access Regulation rules and when they failed to comply after one year, he had the laws against marijuana stricken from the law books.
Nobody anywhere, heard about this unless they actually followed the court cases on line thru transcripts made available by a man named John Turmel.
Questions sent to newspapers both street addressed and internet inquiring about this situation went totally and repeatedly unanswered.
All Canadian Media - TV, Radio, Newspapers - pretended the whole thing simply never happened and the police and government carried on as if the laws were still on the books.
Canadians generally still to this day have no idea those laws have been stricken from their law-books and have been of no force or effect for over a decade.
Canada is a Dominion, and its Dominating Government merely gives lip service to democracy by letting its people stuff pieces of paper into boxes every four years or so, as a placebo. This, of course, has absolutely no effect on who takes the throne in Canada.
I think Harper hates all Canadians because he could never get a date in school without paying the girl cash up front and all the guys made fun of his face, calling him "Butt-cheeks". But that's just a guess.
---
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: All Hail King Harper - hip hip Whore Hey!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: All Hail King Harper - hip hip Whore Hey!
Also, Harper in the october elections....he's in trouble, everywhere except Alberta and Saskatchewan (and even that might change, in Alberta). The guy got a majority with 37% of votes in 2011 after all parties voted a non confidence vote against the guy. Everyone hates him except like 10% of Canadians, the 27% other "conservative" voters just voted conservative randomly,because the Liberals became very unpopular after one of the worst scandals in Canadian history (the Quebec sponsorship scandal) that the Paul Martin Liberals but also the Chrétien Liberals were caught red handed doing, of course only the middle men got prison time if any, but what's popular or non popular in Quebec is what determines what party gets in power usually. Last time, the NDP removal of the BQ seats was quite the shock.
Don't fret it, in October, Harper will be almost having a stroke back in a minority government where he can't pass anything anymore, or even better the Liberals' momentum will continue, and the Conservatards will have % equal to the NDP and the BQ might win back a dozen seats at least, the freakish NDP seats that make no sense (unilingual english speaking MP in a 99% french speaking county becoming MP just because they decided to present themselves for the NDP believing they'd never win, and did.
I do share your frustration. That guy from CSEC or whatever, he wouldn't identify where he worked, that was interviewed on tv and alternews on youtube, he had shades and a big row of army-like stars on his regular shirt interviewed in the morning amongst the crisis actors in Ottawa that fateful morning was fucking comparing this to 911. LMAO.
If something like 911 happened in Canada, there I agree martial law would be instituted right away. Our Charter of Rights And Freedoms is good but not as good as the American Bill of Rights, even while on fire.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Re: All Hail King Harper - hip hip Whore Hey!
You sort of single handedly proved my point.
Canadians don't have a clue what their government is actually doing, or why and still think that there is more than one party and that elections work perfectly well, to choose the right man for the job.
I know this hurts to read but, there is absolutely no Canadian media that tells the public what they need to know. Did the Quebecois Press mention anything at all about what I posted directly above when Hemp Laws were stricken form the books in Canada. Of course they didn't. The fact that you personally might not give a shit about the Hemp Prohibition Laws is meaningless.
What you have mistaken for a Free Press is simply the French Canadian habit of printing shit that embarrasses Ottawa. Did you know for instance that the Separatist Party in Quebec is actually the Old Quebec Nazi Party with a new handle, same members?
Canada may have "publically" given the Queen of England her walking orders, but the country is still ruled by the same old money French and English families that ruled when she was reigning potentate.
Now of course she just drops by to pick up a new supply of $5,000.00/roll ass-wipe and whatever other trinkets the Dominators decide Canadian tax payers should offer.
The Americans still think they have a real democracy.
The Canadians really believe their government became a democracy.
No difference.
Both wrong.
And really, there is no need to argue any of this back and forth. Just wait a couple of years and the punch line will be so obvious even die hard believers will have no choice but to realize the danger and try and stay under the Federal Gestapo's radar.
---
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: All Hail King Harper - hip hip Whore Hey!
And anyway they had a point saying the anglos and Montreal Jews controlled all the wealth and something had to be done about it. But we only revolted finally, from direct Vatican control mostly, something approved by the English and their protestant churches, in the 60's in the Quiet Revolution.
And you're confusing racism with bringing up facts, if you want me to quote Jacques Parizeau (who was a member of the Liberal Party, like ALL top PQ guys when it formed in the 70's and won it's awesome majority in '76, not nazis) after the 0.6% vote defeat for secession in '95 where he was drunk but you know how some people tell the plain truth when drunk...it just happens that politicians don't get drunk at important public rallies, he might have opened up the champagne as they were winning that damn referendum only to be struck by a sudden 18% drop in Yes suddenly that didn't make sense around 8h20pm.
So I believe his drunken assessment if you read between the lines :"Yes, we lost, but to whom? Money and the ethnic vote." Ethnic vote not meaning immigrants currently in Quebec (Mostly Montreal), which we view as kind of an 11th province, MTL is not representative of QC, he meant all the shenanigans Chretien pulled to suddenly accelerate the approval of demands for asylum in Canada, and the usual rule is to send ex french colony speaking immigrants, not this time, it was instructed to them that if they were to become Canadian citizens, they had to vote Yes on that coming referendum they didn't know about and were accepted, all 80 000 of them in a month and thrown into Montreal.
And, you should be missing the BQ's large number of seats in the past at the federal level, we kept things in check. The press loves to rip Ottawa, but at least they aren't invented things to rag about, like it's totally fair game in the US to do, even encouraged when it comes to pol. opponents. Every good decision taken in the last 50 years since the Quiet Revolution taken federally is from Quebec and then other provinces finding Quebec's idea a good idea and then pushing for it. Of course QC was betrayed in the "Night Of The Long Knives" which is still the cause we did not sign that constitution. You really don't think Helmet-head Adolf Harper, if removed in October, we'll all have the right to have a collective sigh, from sea to sea?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: All Hail King Harper - hip hip Whore Hey!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: All Hail King Harper - hip hip Whore Hey!
I think if a Canadian wants to know what's up, it's very easy to do so. A lot of knuckleheads only care about the news when there's something to be reactionary about, like the thing that happened in France. Whe Nuts n Yahoo was told not to come to France by the President, he came anyway, was put in the second line of world leaders in that creepy triangle of charlies and shimmered his way to the front.
And it's that country Harper worships (and I'll go as far as to say as Harper is Nuts-n-Yahoo's bitch if we're to consider his suck ass visit with the most enslaved to the King CP members and also even an JDF member, an illegal terrorist organization! vist to Israel to suck up and be so fucking full of hubris that some Israeli MP's heckled him.
Me and the people I know, from other provinces, hi to all my friends in Winnipeg and Portage-la-Prairie! are all informed people. Hell even CBC radio is a good way to get info, if you ignore the more BBC'esque "scary" news that never happen they insert here and there. But I stopped listening to it when they fired Ghomeshi, seems like a huge entrapment case since he was the flagship of the station and Liberal values in Canada (and a totally absorbed in Canada's music and artistic scenes son of an Iranian immigrant). So Adolf Harper who probably hates Iran more than Quebec concocted this thing to have removed from the station that was proving him wrong when saying CBC had to suffer cuts etc. (CBC Radio was getting stronger ratings since almost a decade, it's TV that was dropping majorly).
Alright I'm tired, I might login in my old account if I got to reply to this so we can take it in private.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: All Hail King Harper - hip hip Whore Hey!
Still, with all the health issues (I won't list the 4 of em), but let's say if I was American and wanted to continue living my life, I'd be about 300 000+ in the hole and would end up in the streets. That's also why welfare is generous in canadian provinces, living in the streets isnt really an option in most of the country (except BC, where in the mild winter of Vancouver, the BC government basically made it impossible to get welfare, no matter how many years you worked subsidizing it); it would cause one hell of a frozen genocide in the streets if other provinces were to cut in welfare, which they never do, they always increase it, like minimum wage, so don't tell me this country is as fucked as the US. I even get a tax rebate from my income tax because I suffer from adult ADD:Innattentive (the H went away playing sports all my life). And the US didn't have the balls to have an actual single payer health system, which is a sacred cow, not even Harper wants to touch, pissing off his most rabid "Kill The Poor" MP's...
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re:
I doubt Harper has enough time left to pass such laws, elections in October, and he's not polling first since 2 years now, sometimes even third.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: All Hail King Harper - hip hip Whore Hey!
Gads! I really do love Canuks.
I'm beginning to think that if there is even the slightest hope for the future of the earth, its gonna come outta Canada.
All I can say about all of your responses - and thank you by the way - is that you need to stop looking at the circus events and public skits performed for the masses, by these fascist politicians and their trained clowns and start reading between the lines a little more, about the WHY of it all.
Such publically performed shenanigans are specifically designed to give the population unimportant issues to discuss and mull over. Important moves are always done in secret.
The post about "Senate proposed legalizing weed for every Canadian age 16+" shows me that you - like 99.999% of Canadians - heard nothing from news media about the case, as I stated. I take it from your apparent off-hand style in that post that you do not indeed give a shit about cannabis, or more likely consider it an evil weed. So be it. It has no bearing on the fact that no news media reported it.
My comment was that no Canadian newspaper, tv, or radio broadcast mentioned either the 4 year long court case, or the resultant removal of the Cannabis Prohibition Law that Law Enforcement and the courts then simply pretended never happened. Why not - no Canadians knew anything about it after all.
Only those of us who were following it online, day by day, knew about the Crown's dirty deals and saw how the phony Pro-Hemp Lawyer Mr. Young, was working for the feds to keep the plant illegal in order to maintain the price of his soon-to-be business of importing the pure hemp oil extract- Sativex - I believe its called.
None of this was covered by any news outlet in the country, by government decree.
When was such control of media allowed in a democracy?
Canada has probably the greatest probability of surviving the trend towards fascism affecting the rest of the world today, but currently it is a controlled kingdom and it is about to undergo an even greater overhaul by the fascists at home and in the USA, Britain, Australia, and New Zealand, as it brings its people into line with the needs of the Five Eyes Cabal.
---
[ link to this | view in thread ]