Monday, April 22, 2013

The Combating Terrorism Act vs Justin Trudeau

On Thursday, three days after the Boston Marathon bombings, the Cons still had scheduled an opposition day for Monday - a day on which the opposition parties set the day's agenda. But then on Friday, an hour after learning that Justin Trudeau would spend it introducing his Backbenchers' Spring motion, Government House Leader Peter Van Loan suddenly announced that opp day was cancelled due to the vital national importance of debating the Combating Terrorism Act on Monday instead ... because of the Boston Marathon bombing.
Sure, whatever.

Notable that the S-7 Combating Terrorism Act would have passed already in its previous incarnations as Bill C-17 and C-19 if Steve hadn't prorogued Parliament. On September 22, 2010 the entire Liberal Party but one voted along with the Cons to pass C-17. Then on October 23 2012, the entire Liberal Party save 5 voted in favour of S-7.

Dear Libs : and this is why you can't be taken seriously as a credible opposition to Steve or a partner in any coalition against Steve. Prior to the last election, you expected to be given a pass for voting along with Steve hundreds of times owing to the fact you couldn't afford to bring down the government because you weren't ready to have an election. You don't have that excuse any longer. Really looking forward to hearing your cautious mousy noises against innocent citizens being incarcerated without trial before you all vote along with Steve once again, just so no one can call you soft on terrorism :
Liberal MP Francis Scarpaleggia said that the Liberals will be supporting Bill S-7 and noted that many of the original measures were first introduced by the Chretien government in 2001.

S-7. Let's suppose you know someone, perhaps your landlord or a colleague at work, that the government suspects may one day in the future commit an act of terrorism. You can be detained for up to 3 days without charge while being questioned. You don't get to hear, let alone challenge, any evidence given against you or your colleague, even if it's tortured out of someone you've never heard of in Syria, and you can be held without trial for a year if you don't co-operate.


Sure, you're a model citizen but are you sure you don't know any of these suspected terrorists for instance? ...

Building Resilience Against Terrorism : Canada’s Counter-terrorism Strategy
Public Safety Canada 2012 , introduced by Vic Toews :
"...domestic extremism that is “based on grievances – real or perceived – revolving around the promotion of various causes such as animal rights, white supremacy, environmentalism and anti-capitalism."
which is merely a rehash of the language in :
2010 G8 Summit - Integrated Security Unit Joint Intelligence Group 
but minus the reference to "First nations' resource-based grievances" :
1a The Terrorist Threat
     1b The Public Order Threat
"The 2010 G8 summit in Huntsville ... will likely be subject to actions taken by criminal extremists motivated by a variety of radical ideologies. These ideologies may include variants of anarchism, anarcho-syndicalism, nihilism, socialism and/or communism. These ideologies may also include notions of racial supremacy and white power ... 
"The important commonality is that these ideologies ... place these individuals and/or organizations at odds with the status quo and the current distribution of power in society. 
In addition to these generally held tenets, a variety of grievances exist: These grievances are based upon notions/expectations regarding the environment, animal rights, First nations'(sic) resource-based grievances, gender/racial equality, and distribution of wealth etc."
 The G8/G20 - in which thousands of people got locked up for days for no reason whatsoever.

So who wants to see the G8/G20 pilot project experiment in "terrorism" law enforcement expanded into law right across Canada? 

The Cons have had this version of the terrorism bill lying around for months, just waiting for a day when they needed to change the channel, and today is that day - they've decided to have the third reading on embedding preventative arrest and secret trials in law for no other reason than to change the channel on Justin Trudeau. 
.
10:45 Update
After watching the proceedings for an hour and a half now, I must apologize for writing re the Libs:
Really looking forward to hearing your cautious mousy noises against innocent citizens being incarcerated without trial before you all vote along with Steve once again, just so no one can call you soft on terrorism.
I take it back - they are not even bothering to do that much. 
Aside from the two Lib MPs questioning the timing of bringing this bill forward now to offset Trudeau's backbencher freedom motion, the only debate going on is among NDP MPs regarding provisions of the act. After opening remarks from Con Public Safety parlsec Candice Bergen, the Cons have not responded once. 

2pm Update : So "Operation Smooth", carried out by Homeland Security, FBI, and Canadian law enforcement, thwarted the Trainspotter Two without the benefit of the Combating Terrorism Act. Huh.
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Wednesday April 24 2013 Update : S-7 passes into law.

Libs and Cons - 183 Yes     vs      NDP, Bloc and Green - 93 No

Feb 2 2014 Update : C-44 - An Act to amend the Canadian Security Intelligence Service Act and other Acts   Passed
Libs and Cons - 174 Yes       vs        NDP, Green - 81No
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13 comments:

Anonymous said...

How many backbenchers would it take to cement support for Trudeau's motion?
Is that motion dead in the water now?

Alison said...

12 Cons, and by my count they have 10 outed grumpy backbenchers now.

Not dead, reassigned to 2 hours on Wednesday after the Con caucus - which will give Steve time to beat them back into line.

wv = opolumps ha!

Anonymous said...

Liberals and Cons agree--we need MORE detainment w/o charge, oh that pesky, radical, anachronistic Charter of Rights, it has got to go!

susansmith said...

h/t Alison to babble thread on Trudeau! thanks

Toe said...

Alleged terror plot thwarted by arrests in Ontario, Quebec

Wow, timing eh? They arrested them today?

Anonymous said...

Alleged terror plot thwarted by arrests in Ontario, Quebec
"...part of a cross-border operation involving Canadian law enforcement agencies, the FBI and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
The RCMP are expected to hold a press conference Monday afternoon..."

So the Cons knew this was coming down today after a year long investigation.

Alison said...

CBC : RCMP accused the two men of conspiring to commit an "al-Qaeda-supported" attack.
Chief Supt. Jennifer Strachan said said the two suspects watched trains and railways in the Greater Toronto Area. There was a specific route targeted, not necessarily a specific train. Strachan said the attack was in the planning state but "not imminent."

So ... you didn't need S-7 to figure this one out then.

Boris said...

Morton mentions that S-7 effectively removes the right to remain silent upon questioning by police. You might get tasered for it, but you have that right.

http://jmortonmusings.blogspot.ca/2013/04/todays-terrorist-arrests-do-not-justify.html

Morton doesn't often voice definitive views like this, so I imagine he's worried.

If taken in sum, these proposed laws mean that one can be arbitrarily arrested and be compelled to comply with all police demands, nestled neatly into discourse that frames anyone with a policy objection to the Conservatives as a potential terrorist. The writing is on the wall and the order paper about how these people view the majority of the people in the country.

Nadine Lumley said...

Canada’s coup d'état is in slow motion

Death of the Liberal Class 10/22/2010. Is Chris Hedges right? Have the pillars which protect a liberal democracy - the press, liberal religious institutions, labour unions, universities and the Democratic Party in the U.S. - sold out to corporate interests?

Chris Hedges on the loss of democracy from major American institutions, including education, religion, politics and unions and of the growing corporate class.

http://youtu.be/xnx-MiRtngA


-00-

West End Bob said...

In answer to your first question, Nadine Lumley:

Yes, and a long time ago, unfortunately . . . .

Unknown said...

Ironic the Liberals attacked the NDP over the charter of rights only to abaddon it.

Anonymous said...

Canadian Civil Liberties Association had a good outline of S7.

http://ccla.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/20121128-Statement-on-Reintroduction-of-Anti-Terrorism-Provisions.pdf

Alison said...

Thanks, Anon. The S-7 link highlighted in the post already goes to the CCLA article.

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