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Rescind the
Anti-Terrorism Act!
Release the
Prisoners!
by Barry Weisleder / November 2006
October was a tough month for the enemies of
civil liberties. Ontario courts twice struck down aspects of Canada’s
sweeping so-called security and anti-terrorism laws. These judicial
decisions were a limited reflection of public outrage over abusive police
practices.
Justice Douglas Rutherford ruled out part
of the Anti-Terrorism Act, which defines “terrorist activity” on political,
religious, or ideological grounds.
Justice Lynn Ratushny decided that the
Security of Information Act, used by the RCMP to harass an Ottawa Citizen
journalist, is so vague, broad, and open to abuse that it violates the
Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
The courts also barred Ottawa from trying
to deport Mahmood Jaballah, 44, a ‘terror suspect’, to a country where he
might face torture. Judges have also ordered non-Canadians accused of
terrorism who have been held for long periods without being charged or
deported to be released into the community under strict supervision. And
earlier, the RCMP got a well-deserved black eye from the Maher Arar affair.
But five years after its adoption in 2001
under a Liberal majority, the current Tory minority government wants
Parliament to grant a five-year extension to the most egregious provisions
in the Anti-Terrorism Act. A House of Commons sub-committee reviewing the
Act urged that preventive arrest (for up to a year without charge) and
investigative hearings (with power to compel testimony, while offering no
protection against self-incrimination) should be maintained. Conservatives
and Liberals who dominate the sub-committee voted yes; New Democratic Party
and Bloc Quebecois members disagreed.
An Oct. 25 Toronto Star editorial pointed
out that “since 9/11, police have successfully investigated and charged
terror suspects without relying on these Draconian measures.” It called for
an end to these provisions but not for the release of all those jailed
without charge, nor for an end to the political offensive that targets
Arabs, Muslims, and minorities and that seeks to justify wars of occupation
in Afghanistan and the Middle East. Evidently, the Star is content with war
and repression so long as they are conducted on the basis of conventional
statutes.
Only by linking a stubborn defence of civil
liberties to an equally firm opposition to imperialist interventions
abroad, can the interests of working people be advanced. More rigorous
action by the labour movement, and a more consistent stance by the NDP on this
front, are urgently needed to reverse the trend towards repression and war.
Issues From 1996-2003:
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