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Here’s a primer on the post-9/11 terror laws to date.

The Anti-terrorism Act (Bill C-36, enacted Dec. 24, 2001)

This was the country’s prime legislative response to the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. For the first time in Canada, this 186-page omnibus bill defined terrorism and created several new categories of crime, including participating in, financing and otherwise facilitating a terrorist activity. It allows the federal cabinet to bypass the courts and unilaterally decide whether certain groups are terrorist organizations, strip them of charitable status, and seize their assets. And it gives courts authority to imprison terrorists and their controllers for life. It is the most massive, complex and controversial legislation ever enacted in Canada.

It includes a controversial “motive clause” that requires authorities to prove an individual’s alleged terrorist actions were motivated by religious, ideological or political beliefs, although proof of motive is generally not required in Canadian criminal law. The provision was added only after opposition politicians and legal scholars expressed concern the legislation might be used to target political dissent and protest, such as labour strikes and anti-globalization protests. The government responded by amending the bill to define terrorist motivation.

Ottawa terrorist Momin Khawaja in 2008 was the first person convicted under the new laws for plotting with British Islamist extremists to detonate bombs in public places across London and launch a wider jihad against the West. Khawaja appealed all the way to the Supreme Court, arguing the motive clause violated his charter right to freedom of expression. He lost. A 2012 high court judgment upheld the act and was seen as an acknowledgment the Anti-terrorism Act is true to the aspirations of the society it is supposed to protect.