Harper ‘radicalizes’ his attack on civil liberties

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The Conservative government of Prime Minister Ste­ phen Harper is using the October shootings in Ottawa, and the deadly assault that killed another soldier east of Montreal, to advance its authoritarian agenda.

With Bill C-44, the “Protection of Canada from Ter­ rorism Act,” Harper seeks to increase the authority of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) to spy on Canadians and foreigners abroad, and to share information with foreign agencies—although that might expose innocent people to imprisonment and torture, as happened in the infamous case of Maher Arar.

In addition, the government proposes to give blanket anonymity to CSIS informants whose testimony fed­ eral prosecutors want to use as evidence, even though it would make it harder for accused people to defend themselves in court.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. Conservative Pub­ lic Safety Minister Stephen Blaney told Radio-Canada that the government might make it easier to arrest and detain people without charging them.

Preventative arrest already exists in the Criminal Code. It was introduced by a Liberal government in 2002, allowed to lapse after five years, and then re­ instated by the Conservatives, with Liberal support in 2013.

Although never used, the Harper administration is toying with the idea of broadening the law to target not only innocent persons it believes will commit a ter­ rorist act in the future, but also those who the security services deem to be terrorists. That “deeming” could include commission of “thought crimes” like claiming on-line that terrorist acts are justified.

What’s next—making it illegal to support govern­ ments on a list of regimes labelled “state terrorist” by Ottawa or Washington—like those in Gaza, Iran, Ven­ ezuela, or Cuba?

Sadly, the assault on civil liberities is all too familiar.

In October 1970, the Liberal government of Pierre Elliot Trudeau invoked the War Measures Act. It sus­ pended basic freedoms of speech, press, and assembly after members of the Front de Liberation du Quebec (FLQ) had kidnapped a British diplomat and a pro­ vincial cabinet minister, who was later murdered. Trudeau claimed that Canada faced “an apprehended insurrection.” The claim was proven false. And it also emerged that the RCMP had infiltrated the FLQ and pushed for violent actions.

The repressive measures implemented by the state, including the military occupation of Quebec and the arrest and detention of over 500 labour, political, and cultural personalities who were never charged with an offense, backfired big time. The ugly sweep con­ tributed to the 1976 election of the first pro-indepen­ dence government in Quebec.

Unlike Pierre Trudeau (whose son Justin now leads the federal Liberal Party), Harper didn’t wait for an excuse to bring down the hammer. His Bill C-24, the “Strengthening Canadian Citizenship Act,” enables the government to revoke Canadian citizenship from dual citizens—like those who demonstrate support for a foreign power Ottawa doesn’t like.

And in a related move designed to undermine social solidarity, the Tory regime has restricted the ability of refugee claimants to access social assistance. That fol­ lowed its earlier decision to limit refugee claimants’ resort to universal public health care.

The fact that the latest exclusionary step was bur­ ied in a government omnibus budget bill, containing hundreds of pages of unrelated measures, says a great deal about Harper’s modus operandi, and about the growing trend of capitalist rule that must be confront­ ed and defeated. n Line 9 across the top of the city.

Chow followed in the footsteps of Andrea Horwath, the Ontario NDP Leader, whose Spring provincial election campaign failed in similar ways. Their common error: fiscal conservatism that alienates a left working-class base, while proving unable to win support among the affluent or in business circles.

The composition of the new city council is not unlike the outgoing one. Thirty-six incumbents were re-elected to fill the 44 council seats—producing a snake pit of hard-line conservatives, compromising liberals, and soft-on-austerity New Demo­ crats. In other words, the neo-liberal agen­ da of cutbacks and privatization is alive and well. Residents and workers face four more years of battles against austerity mea­ sures, while poverty, violence and conges­ tion deepen.

The election was also a magnet for rac­ ism, sexism, and homophobia, which “Ford Nation” excreted and excused. Among the (continued on page 9, in “Corporate raiders target U.S. mail”)