Canada slaughters civil rights

[Meyer Wolfsheim]

It's convenient that ZKS dropped Freedom from it's product line,
nicely dodging the issue of "harboring terrorists."

Hrmm. Tim's been saying this for quite a while, and it's only going to get
worse.

-MW-


http://www.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/americas/10/15/rec.attack.canada.reut/index.html

OTTAWA, Oct 15 (Reuters) -- Canada unveiled a sweeping security bill on
Monday to ban fund-raising by terrorist groups, widen wiretapping
authority and allow police to make preventive arrests of people they think
will engage in terrorism.

[...]

McLellan acknowledged that toughening sentencing for terrorists, as this
bill would do, was unlikely to deter militants who are willing to commit
suicide, like the hijackers of the airliners involved in the September 11
attacks.

But she said for that reason other measures in the bill were needed, such
as the ability to arrest potential assailants ahead of time, to force
people to testify before judges at investigative hearings and to intercept
communications.

[...]

One new feature is an expansion of the role of the secretive
Communications Security Establishment, which operates under the Defence
Department, in monitoring phone calls and e-mails from abroad.

[...]

"Now, having woken up, they (the Liberals) realize the very grave
situation," the Alliance's Vic Toews told Parliament.

[...]

The Canadian bill would also make it an offense to harbor a terrorist, as
in the U.S. legislation, and tighten hate crime provisions to eliminate
online "hate propaganda" and create a new offense of mischief against
places of worship.

[...]

In the run-up to Monday's introduction, civil liberties groups and lawyer
organizations had said McLellan was impinging too much on individual
freedoms.

But she said that in any court challenges the government would rely on a
provision in the constitution that allows the government to provide
"reasonable limits" on rights as needed for a free and democratic society.