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The Liberals promised to guarantee that CSIS warrants respect the Charter as one of its planned amendments. The government may yet write that provision into the legislation but, in the absence of any requests from CSIS, the point may be moot.

The public quiescence on the former bill C-51 is remarkable. A year ago, its unpopularity — and the NDP’s opposition to the bill — powered Tom Mulcair into pole position in public opinion.

But the emerging threat of homegrown terror, and the change of government, has quelled the public outcry about a law that was deemed “dangerous” by 100 Canadian law professors in an open letter to MPs.

Goodale has ambitions to write in amendments that the government can claim will safeguard the rights of Canadians — for example, in the areas of collection of metadata by the Communications Security Establishment, the foreign signals intelligence service.

But, as the rest of the world tightens its security legislation, it would be a brave government that made changes that compromise the effectiveness of the intelligence services.

Public outrage may yet be ignited when the first annual report covering the new legislation is released by CSIS’s watchdog, the Security Intelligence Review Committee.

As security expert Wesley Wark pointed out, if the SIRC report suggests CSIS has been abusing its new powers, or if the CSE Commissioner claims the organization has not been complying with Canadian law in the collection of metadata, the public’s concern about rights may trump fears about security.

But for now, public sentiment appears to be governed by a sense that all that protects them from a disaffected Omar Mateen-type figure is a vigilant security service, standing on guard for them.

• Email: jivison@nationalpost.com | Twitter: IvisonJ