Among those criticizing the new law are the BC and Canadian Civil Liberties Associations, the Canadian Association of University Teachers, the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group, Amnesty International, the Canadian Muslim Public Affairs Council and Independent Jewish Voices Canada.
In a joint statement, they say C-70 “will likely have significant impacts — both directly and in the form of a chilling effect — on freedom of expression, freedom of association, freedom of assembly, and on privacy, and it could well be used to profile people on political, racial, religious, or nationality grounds. The law will allow the undermining of academic freedom, freedom of the press, the right to protest and engage in dissent, and efforts at international cooperation and solidarity.”
CSIS has parroted US intelligence agencies allegations regarding China for the past five years, refusing to heed warnings about threat exaggeration from US senator Bernie Sanders, economist Jeffrey Sachs, or Congresswoman Judy Chu.
Mainstream media unfortunately have been hammering the theme of foreign interference. For example, the Globe and Mail has been campaigning for a foreign influence registry for over a year. Likewise, its reporters have unabashedly used CSIS leaks to engage in sensationalist reporting, failing to verify CSIS information. This has created a political maelstrom to the benefit of CSIS.
Why are bills rushed through outside of emergencies (e.g., COVID pandemic, last summer’s record-breaking wildfires, a potential war)? It seems each day I feel less represented in this ‘democracy’ (read plutocracy)
We need proportional representation without a referendum to hold our politicians accountable as it a reason why people voted the ndp and liberals in for.
Thanks for your comment, and your other posts on PR! Your comment motivated me to spend 15 minutes looking into this stuff online (I found this a very clarifying 5-10 read: https://www.fairvote.ca/what-is-first-past-the-post/). And that 15 minutes of research fired me up! This is important stuff !!
Thank you for taking the time to learn. You’re much more educated now than the average person on the flaws of our democracy, we need to have more choices and to create a better tomorrow for Canada. We can fix this!
Nothing cracks me up more than people thinking that they even need to update these acts to do the things everyone is worried about. Not withstanding clause anyone? Can literally strip you of every “right” you think you have and all property you think you own.
Is surveillance the problem? You are surveilled daily and legally because you said “I accept” to more terms and conditions than a Lawyer would be willing to read. This doesn’t include the free information you are putting on the internet daily, which is more valuable than a well placed operative long term. Then we can talk about Government agencies, which are all of them, intercepting whatever they can get. Which is again legal because you agreed to that in order to have your phone connected to the towers, and your computers connected to the internet.
"Among the controversial provisions are section 20 (1) “Every person commits an offence who, at the direction of, for the benefit of or in association with, a foreign entity or a terrorist group, induces or attempts to induce, by intimidation, threat or violence, any person to do anything or to cause anything to be done (a) that is for the purpose of increasing the capacity of a foreign entity or a terrorist group to harm Canadian interests; or (b) that is reasonably likely to harm Canadian interests.”
What is controversial about not assisting foreign entities through acts of violence and intimidation and making that a law?
If your “legitimate dissent” involves acting with, and for, foreign entities of any kind you can kindly get fucked and go set up shop in their country. You are either a useful idiot or a bad actor and Canada needs no more of either thanks.
