To the editor:
On January 30 Prime Minister Harper announced his new “anti-terrorism” bill (C-51)—not in Parliament, but at an election-style, made-for-TV rally in Richmond Hill, where partisans clapped on cue.
Like Bush Jr. before him, Harper appears intent on fanning public fears of “jihadist terrorism” to win the next election.
The bill seeks to make sweeping changes to Canadian law, including: Restricting free speech, overriding certain privacy rights, expanding police powers, and increasing the surveillance powers of CSIS to monitor citizens’ communications, with little civilian oversight.
As Conservatives have previously labelled Canadians advocating for the environment as ‘eco-terrorists,’ I imagine Harper has speech 2.0 already written: “‘It is the eco-terrorists who endanger our security and would take away our freedoms. It doesn’t matter what the age of the person is, or whether they’re in a garden, or planting a tree, or whether they’re in a forest watching birds or somewhere else. When you are engaged in activities that explicitly promote or advocate clean air and clean rivers, lakes and streams, that is a serious criminal offence no matter who you are. We cannot tolerate this.'”
David Buckna, Kelowna
