Roundup: More security, no more oversight

Posted on by

The new anti-terrorism bill was unveiled today, but in the government’s singularly dickish fashion – sending journalists to a lock-up off the Hill where they couldn’t even see the bill for the first hour, while Harper made the announcement in a pre-campaign stop in a suburb of Toronto. While the bill would largely expand the powers of CSIS greatly, it lowers the legal thresholds for preventative arrest and peace bones, criminalising the “promotion” of terrorism, allowing CSIS to “disrupt” would-be terror activities, removing terrorist materials from the web, sealing court proceedings, and overhauling the national no-fly list. Oddly enough, nobody would say how any of these measures could have prevented the October 22nd shooting in Ottawa. What it doesn’t do is provide any new or additional oversight to the agency, unlike all of our allies (but hey, they finally filled one of the empty seats on SIRC yesterday, but it’s still not up to full strength and there’s no permanent chair. Yay oversight!). It’s a strange kind of obstinacy, and only serves to make it like the government has something to hide. And then of course there are the concerns from civil liberties groups and the Privacy Commissioner, which goes to the breadth of activities and again the lack of proper civilian oversight. Tyler Dawson writes that the need to criminalise that “promotion” of terrorism is an admission of being afraid of these terrorists.

https://twitter.com/cmathen/status/561220364957933569

Good reads:

  • Following their meeting in Ottawa, the premiers (sans Jim Prentice) came out united on the topics of seniors healthcare and infrastructure renewal, which of course touched off a pissing match with Joe Oliver over those funds at a time of low oil prices (err, and super low interest rates).
  • The Supreme Court of Canada has enshrined the right to strike as part of the Charter right to freedom of association, which will affect recent federal legislation on “essential services.”
  • Erin O’Toole has apparently failed his first test as new Veterans minister, as he didn’t table a report on implementing changes to the New Veterans Charter by deadline.
  • Susan Delacourt writes about what the parties are saying about how the Internet has revitalised politics – before descending into a terrible rhetorical lament about why MPs still go to “archaic” Question Period when apparently the Internet could do things better. (No, and here’s one reason why).

Odds and ends:

Thomas Mulcair looks increasingly petty over the defection of Glenn Thibeault to the provincial Liberals as he went to Sudbury to campaign for the provincial candidate yesterday, while calling Thibeault “opportunistic” and “beneath contempt.”

Suspended Senator Patrick Brazeau is apparently out of rehab and returning to the public eye including the Twitter Machine.

As the election closes in, the Liberals and NDP had record fundraising quarters, but the Liberals are widening the gap between the two (and closing it with the Conservatives).