Article content continued

“Is there any degree of checks and balances that would satisfy you?” he asked Cheung. “Are you simply fundamentally opposed to taking terrorists off the street?”

Next to drop the gloves was Conservative MP LaVar Payne. Addressing Joanne Kerr, executive-director of Greenpeace Canada, on the bill’s measures for greater sharing of Canadians’ personal information between government departments, he said: “The purpose of the act is sharing for national security threats, so it makes me wonder if your organization is a national security threat?

“I see your organization is protesting pipelines, forestry projects, but I didn’t hear anything to indicate to me that you were planning to bomb any of Canadian infrastructure or sabotage electrical grids, so I wonder if you consider yourself to be a national security threat and if you understand the definition, that it won’t apply to you as long as you don’t commit any of these terrorist activities?”

Payne’s remarks ran down the committee’s allotted question-and-response time, leaving Kerr no opportunity to respond.

Later Thursday, Albonczy turned to witness Ihsaan Gardee, executive director of the National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM), and asked him to explain “continuing allegations” about his group and the “operating relationship between a Hamas front group and your organization.”

“I think it is fair to give you an opportunity to address these troubling allegations,” she said. “Because in order to work together, there needs to be a satisfaction that, you know, this can’t be a half-hearted battle against terrorism and where do you stand in light of these allegations?”