The Canadian Association of Professional Employees (CAPE) believes that the federal government’s proposed Anti-terrorism Act, 2015 (Bill C-51), in its present form, could lead authorities to suppress demonstrations and activities protesting government policies, thereby restricting the freedom of expression rights of Canadians.
Despite the Conservative government’s assurances and the indication in the text of the bill that “activity that undermines the security of Canada [...] does not include advocacy, protest, dissent and artistic expression,” the line between what will be considered “lawful” and “unlawful” is far too blurred.
The ability to peacefully protest against government policies is a bulwark of Canadian democracy, and Bill C-51 seems to want to restrict that right. “We know that the elected members of the present government consider environmentalists who are critical of the Energy East Pipeline to be nothing more than ‘terrorists’ endangering Canada’s economic security,” noted CAPE President Emmanuelle Tremblay. “It is not a stretch,” she added, “ to imagine the government using this legislation to crack down on legitimate activities opposing this pipeline. That is what makes this bill so dangerous.”
This is particularly worrisome in light of Bill C-639, a Private Member’s Bill tabled in the House of Commons last December, which would amend the Criminal Code to make “interference with critical infrastructure” a criminal offence. C-359 could potentially make it illegal to hold peaceful demonstrations involving “critical infrastructure.”
Moreover, we know from recent Labour conflicts at Canada Post, Air Canada and Canadian National that the Conservative government has no compunction about passing back-to-work legislation to quell strike threats or put an end to perfectly legal strikes – making a constitutionally protected action illegal with the stroke of a pen. So what can we expect to see happen to people who want to demonstrate against arbitrary government decisions? Will they be immediately branded terrorists and subjected to the provisions of this new legislation?
“The more we know about the contents of Bill C-51, the more Canadian public support for this bill continues to falter quickly,” noted Ms. Tremblay. “The best move the Conservatives could make would be to scrap C-51 entirely, since the government already has sufficient latitude under existing statutes to counter the threat of terrorism. However, since the government has already made clear its stubborn intention to pass C-51, it should at least agree to the amendments proposed by the opposition parties and a number of experts in order to avoid the risks to democracy inherent in this bill.”
