With the beginning of theNew Year and the start of anew parliamentary sessionon the immediate horizon,the Working Group toStop Bill C-51 continuedits weekly campaign andactivities at various transithubs throughout the LowerMainland – focusingespecially on dispellingsome of the myths the
Liberal Party will be tryingto use to justify the humanand democratic rights theyplan to violate with theirre-worked “Anti-TerrorismLaw” Bill C-59.
January saw actions in four major cities in five weeks,three of which were atentirely new locations where many highschool & college students,along withworkers, learned about Bill C-51 & C-59
for the first time.
The Liberals have tried to sell the humanrights infringements in Bill C-59 asreasonable because the Bill includessome increased oversight mechanisms.However, the shadowy Communications
Security Establishment (CSE), whichis being given broad new powers forsurveillance and cyber attack has littlepublic accountability. The CSE has itsown “panel of experts” from across theagency that meets “regularly” to discussthe agencies policies, but refuses to makeany of them public. Under Bill C-59Canada will continue to be worse than even the U.S. in public accountability inthis regard.
As Chris Parsons, an academic involvedin a 90 page report released by theUniversity of Toronto’s CitizenLab andthe Canadian Internet Policy & PublicInterest Clinic said, “Unfortunately, thereis a vast difference between how the CSEpublicly describes its intended use ofthese powers and [the] ways they couldbe used (and abused) in the future”.
The Globe and Mail also reported thismonth that researchers estimate almost100,000 Canadians have been false flaggedunder the government’s errorplagued “No Fly List” program. Childrenas young as three and four years old havebeen put on this no-fly list because theirname resembles someone else’s. TheLiberal Government has been unwillingor unable to fix this in its two years ofgovernance. If they are comfortablekeeping 100,000 innocent people on aNo-Fly list, how are we to trust them toprotect our rights with the other powerswhich Bill C-59 does not change fromthe Conservatives Bill C-51, and the newones it also adds.
The answer is straightforward. We cannot.Bill C-51 and now Bill C-59 are answerslooking for a problem. Through a mixof fear and Islamophobia, both Harperand now Trudeau have worked towards
minimizing our rights and ability toorganize in opposition to their austeritypolicies. The only immediate solutionis to Repeal Bill C-51 and Scrap BillC-59. This month will be the three year
anniversary of the Working Group toStop Bill C-51, and the group is stillas committed as ever to defendingdemocratic and human rights through aconsistent and dynamic campaign.
Repeal Bill C-51! Scrap Bill C-59!
Trudeau, Respect Our Human Rights!
Follow Max and Thomas on Twitter:
@MaxTennant @thomasdavies59
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