Bill C-36: Canada
In response to the terrorist attacks in New York on September 11 2001, the government of Canada has proposed new anti-terrorism legislation known as Bill C-36. It is clear that Bill C-36 challenges many rights and freedoms that are protected under the Charter we as Canadians value so highly. This bill consists of several changes and amendments to Canadian law in areas such as criminal procedure, international relations, immigration, individual privacy, law enforcement, and charitable giving. These proposed changes to Canadian law has generated heavy criticisms by scholars, officials, and numerous others, regarding the potential impact that these changes may have upon the civil rights and liberties of Canadians. This legislation proposes new measures to identify, prosecute, convict, and punish terrorist organizations, and also to provide new investigative ways for law enforcement and national security agencies to uncover terrorist activities. With this kind of legislation producing such serious measures in hopes of creating more effective anti-terrorism laws, it is not surprising to see so many provisions come along with them as to ensure Canadians' values and rights are preserved. With respect to the changes that Bill C-36 outli
With the numerous safeguards that Bill C-36 gives along within this new legislation, it is not very comforting reading about these new powers that are hardly ever contemplated in Canadian Law. For example, Bill C-36 provides that police can detain terrorism suspects for up to 24 hours without laying a charge with a possible extension of up to 72 hours. As stated by Joseph Magnet, a constitutional law professor at the University of Ottawa, "police probably have a watch on some 350 people who are either suspected terrorists or thought to have terrorist ties, now the police can go around, ask them questions, and if they do not answer, they will detain them." He also believes that this could allow police to open up a debate about the use of physical force on suspects. For example, police could have a suspect in custody that is being un-cooperative, and if they are sufficiently frightened that a terrorist event is about to happen in a matter of days or hours, physical means could be used to get the suspect (s) to answer. that some people say Canada has a strong legislative framework and enforcement capacity to deal with terrorist threats. It has been our experience, based on our investigation into the tragic events of September 11, that is not true. Notwithstanding our efforts, it has become evident that there are some insignificant obstacles preventing law enforcement organizations such as the RCMP from detecting, deterring and destabilizing terrorist groups. Traditional investigative tools are inadequate in some cases#. Since this is coming from the RCMP side of the issue, it is no surprise that they wish to have more power in investigative measures surrounding the fight against terrorism. But I feel that it is not the actual laws themselves that are the main area of concern, but rather they way in which these new laws would be enforced or used. Since there are current laws to convict terrorists already, the bill is essentially asking for tougher laws and broader powers to arrest the suspects and new tools to do so. Overall, there will be enormous pressures upon the courts to relax rules relating to previous Charter rulings that liberalized these new powers such as police interrogation techniques, investigative tools, privacy rights, and even wiretap authorizations. Though these would only be under issues relating to terrorism acts or suspected terrorist activity, it is nonetheless decisions that Canadian law has not been faced with for some time. But this all adds up to the huge issues surrounding the civil rights and liberties that will be challenged in regard to national security and how the government may use these new powers. Though Canada does have laws that can be used to combat terrorism, which include provisions in the Criminal Code and other statutes, it was seen that they were clearly not adequate. Commissioner Zaccardelli states After reading through the report given by the Canadian Bar Association, it was clear that many of their issues were centered on the dramatic expansion of police powers and the limitations put upon citizens rights and liberties. They followed up their report by saying that these powers should be temporary and only under an extraordinary threat. It is in my opinion that terrorism is never just a 'temporary' threat. Terrorism is a threat all the time and all over the world. So how can terrorism have temporary laws if terrorism itself is not temporary? It would be a mistake to only have these powers in legislation for a limited time, especially considering all the work and review that would have to be directed for proper implementation of these new laws. Keeping in context with the new amendments of Bill C-36, new laws have been added which create new offences that target the participation, leadership and similar activities relating to terrorism. These offences are even considered offences in the end even if the terrorist act is not carried out. Some problems associated with the cr
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Approximate Word count = 2831
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page double spaced)
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