Canada's Conservatives Slammed For Trying to Rush Through Anti-Terror Act

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Canada's anti-terrorism C-51 Bill, currently under discussion by the country's parliament, has drawn more criticism from the opposition New Democratic Party (NDP) as the Conservatives try to limit the witness testimonies at the Commons committee on public safety and national security to just three days.

"Opposition (NDP + Lib) want about 60 people [to speak on the proposed C-51 law], 25 days," Canadian Security reporter Kristie Smith tweeted Thursday.

"Finance Committee to study terror financing for unlimited time — while Cons want 3 days only on #C51 what a farce," Craig Scott, Member of Parliament from the New Democratic Party (NDP) wrote.

"For the sake of comparison, cyberbullying bill C-13 (28 pages) got 10 committee hearings. Anti-terror bill C-51 (63 pages) may get only 3," Justin Ling, politics reporter for Vice News said.

The government's bill which is set to provide the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) with more powers to prevent potential terrorist attacks, targets any "activity that undermines the security of Canada" — which is widely understood as an excessively broad definition of terrorism.

In a widely-cited article for The Star, law professors Kent Roach and Craig Forcese stressed that any protest action which fails to comply with municipal permitting regulations may be regarded as terrorism under the proposed law.

The broad language of the Bill has sparked concerns among representatives of Canada's environmental and indigenous movements. As Yan Robert, Animal Rights activist, puts it in his article for the Huffington Post Canada, the new bill "will make it easier to throw Canadians in Jail without a charge."

"The government has failed to make the case for the new powers it seeks. This is another omnibus bill by the Conservatives that would expand the powers of CSIS [Canadian Security Intelligence Service] dramatically but would fail to strengthen oversight and review powers," Murray Rankin of NDP said in a Thursday Op-Ed for Times Colonist.

The C-51 Bill gives CSIS power to disrupt the activities of suspected terrorists without a warrant. As the National Post highlighted Thursday in an article titled "Why are the Tories determined to rush C-51 through committee?", under this law police would be able to arrest someone, if they suspect that a terrorist act "may be about to occur", while the previous standard was "will."

The new legislation is being adopted in the wake of two terrorist attacks in Canada in October last year and growing concerns about increased recruitment efforts for terrorist organizations such as the Islamic State.