You can only feel a sickening sense of betrayal in Bill C-51 that is now before our parliament. We are betrayed by Stephen Harper’s determination for re-election. It is a bill that begs for abuse. Ill-conceived and ill-defined, it is a reactionary bill better serving a lynch mob than reasoned jurisprudence.
All we can tell you is that this is not the answer to the fear of an enemy within. It is the same feeling we had 45 years ago when Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau used the archaic War Measures Act against le Front de libération du Québec (FLQ). There was no war. And the measures were excessive. Back then, as now, there were no rights, no recourse, no oversight and no answers.
Yet it was a time of the highest approval rating for the Prime Minister and of his infamy. It almost cost him re-election two years later. Sure, the right wing flocked to the flag he carried but they neither stayed the course nor cared.
In their rush to appear firm against terrorism, Justin Trudeau’s Liberals are also tromping hard on Canadian rights and freedoms. Obviously Conservatives do not give a damn but many Liberals do. The really conflicted are Thomas Mulcair’s New Democrats. In a reprise of the split NDP caucus in 1970, the New Democrats are not all buying into Mr. Harper’s draconian measures.
Why should they buy into it? Nothing in this act says that you can always spot and detain an individual who chooses jihad adventures. One sick mind that murders a soldier standing ceremonial guard at a war memorial and then heads for the parliament building to do whatever(?) and is killed in the attempt cannot be anticipated. You hardly need new laws to apprehend fools who plot mayhem.
We have more than enough laws to protect our citizens. If our security services and national police need more powers, let them come before parliament to make their case. For politicians to tell them what they need is not just silly but smacks of what it is: a play for votes.
And what is even more askew is the lack of funding in Bill C-51. Does parliament now give a blank cheque to CSIS and the R.C.M. Police for a sense of safety?
Bill C-51 is grossly flawed. To propose it is foolish. To support it is a disgrace. Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau needs to seriously rethink his position.
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Copyright 2015 © Peter Lowry
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