5 Things You Need to Know about Bill C-51
The Harper Government’s So-Called “Anti-Terror Bill”
1. It is an omnibus bill. Bill C-51 is actually five new pieces of legislation rolled into one. To add insult to injury, the Harper government has refused to allow full debate, meaning there has not been time for MPs and experts to study the many changes being made to our laws.
2. It does nothing to address radicalization. The bill does not include any funding for outreach programs, nothing for the prison system or schools, nothing to ensure alienated young men and women have meaningful alternatives to extremism.
3. It potentially legalizes the use of evidence obtained by torture. Bill C-51 could allow evidence obtained overseas through torture to be presented in Canadian courts, with no requirement that the judge be informed torture was used to gain that information.
4. It expands security powers, but not oversight. This bill turns CSIS into a secret police force, giving them so-called “disruptive” powers, including the ability to the break law or violate the Charter with an unprecedented secret warrant process. To make matters worse there is no oversight, and the only review body is seriously underfunded and understaffed.
5. Elizabeth is in good company opposing this bill. Elizabeth was the first MP to stand-up against this bill, and has now been joined by: four former Prime Ministers, six former Supreme Court Justices, over 100 of our country’s most prominent legal scholars, the Assembly of First Nations, and pundits as diverse as Rex Murphy and Naomi Klein in opposing Bill C-51.
Bill C-51 is dangerously invasive and does nothing to make Canadians safer, and we are running out of time to stop it -- in less than two weeks the House of Commons will have its final vote.
Add your name today -- stand with Elizabeth May and the Green Party of Canada and say NO to Bill C-51.