Bad legislation is bad legislation and to approve bad legislation even temporarily is a denial of principles. The Harper government’s Bill C-51 supposedly to end terrorism is bad legislation beyond any possibility of repair or amendment. It is time for Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau to get up and speak for principles.
No real Liberal can support legislation that denies any Canadians their rights. This bill against terrorism is also a denial of free speech. And the bill is unnecessary. No Canadian police force or organization has said that the extreme provisions of the act are needed. The extra security and police measures in the bill are unfunded and unsupported. It is a bill with little thought or planning other than as a platform for posturing.
And that is all that Bill C-51 is designed to be. It is posturing as being strong against the bogeymen of terrorism. It is part of being strong against crime. It is part of building more prisons to find Canadians to fill. And when the Harper government is busy posturing, you can look for truth elsewhere.
Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney was invoking the Holocaust the other day in support of Bill C-51. While Blaney might not know much about the Weimar Republic, he posited that the Holocaust started because of words. He followed up that brilliant statement with the further observation that the real threat today is from “radical jihadists.” What else jihadists might be beyond “radical” he left to the imagination.
Even in the House of Commons, the Prime Minister has invoked the image of crazed Muslims wearing Niqabs (veils) supposedly murdering us in our beds. He sees the use of veils as a put-down of women in misogynistic societies. For a guy who by now must be our most traveled Prime Minister, he shows very little understanding of customs of different societies in our world.
But the major concern in this confusion of postures is the Liberal position. At one point, Justin Trudeau seemed to be afraid that he had been out-postured by Stephen Harper and therefore he should support the bill and change it later. It appears now that the weaknesses of the bill have been exposed and there would be no harm if the Liberals told the Harper Conservatives to stick their bill where the sun does not shine.
Frankly Canadians would probably think more of Justin Trudeau if he and the Liberals in Parliament voted against Bill C-51. Canadians smart enough to find their way to the voting booth will understand that does not mean he is in favour of terrorism. Far from it. It is easy to understand that you can be down on terrorism without blowing away Canadians’ hard won freedoms.
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Copyright 2015 © Peter Lowry
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