Declaring that “a great evil has descended on our world”, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has unveiled legislation giving security forces sweeping new powers to apprehend suspected terrorists and disrupt their activities.



The new Anti-Terrorism Act – the latest in a series of such measures adopted by the Canadian parliament since the 9/11 terror attacks – will make promoting terrorism a crime subject to five years in prison. It will give the Canadian spy agency enhanced powers to disrupt suspected terrorist activity at home and abroad, and permit courts to shut down any Canadian-based website seen as promoting terrorism or seeking recruits.

“Jihadi terrorism is one of the most dangerous enemies our world has ever faced,” Harper declared on Friday, citing recent attacks in France, Australia and Canada.

Work on the bill began after a gunman killed a soldier at the national war memorial and then stormed Parliament in October. That attack came two days after another lone assailant ran over two soldiers, killing one and injuring the other before being shot to death.

Harper said the new measures were “carefully chosen to be both strong and to protect and enhance our security in a way that protects our rights ... rights that violent jihadism seeks to destroy”.

“Violent jihadism is not a human right,” he told a partisan audience in suburban Toronto while the new bill was introduced in the House of Commons hundreds of miles away. “It is an act of war.”

If passed, the bill would lower the threshold required for proof of arrest in suspected terror cases, permit Canadian spies to “counter-message” or “disrupt” radical websites, “whether in Canada or elsewhere”, and authorize court proceedings in terror-related cases to be sealed.

Anticipating criticism, Harper lashed out at opposition politicians and civil liberties groups who “suggest that somehow our freedom is threatened” by such measures. “We do not buy the argument that every time you protect Canadians you somehow take away their liberties,” he said to enthusiastic applause. “It’s the jihadists who are against us, the police who are on our side,” he added.

Harper also took issue with those who have criticized the unauthorized “mission creep” of Canadian soldiers in Iraq, who have been sent as advisers but are increasingly involved in anti-ISIS firefights. He saluted the soldiers with “congratulations on the great job they’re doing”.

But the prime minister faltered somewhat when asked to explain how the new measures could have prevented to the two recent lone-wolf attacks.

Critics questioned Harper’s claim that the new act includes sufficient protection for civil liberties. The British Columbia Civil Rights Association denounced the new law as “a real danger to Canadians.”

“This radical expansion of national security powers is not sound security policy and presents a real danger to Canadians,” policy director Micheal Vonn warned in a news release. “Criminalizing people’s words and thoughts is misguided and won’t make Canadians any safer,” she added.

“We will be less free, less democratic and less likely to know who to keep an eye on. This new law will impose a broad chill on legitimate political speech without enhancing public safety, and is likely unconstitutional.”

Sukanya Pillay, director of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, said: “New laws and new powers don’t necessarily guarantee security, but they can guarantee a shift away from democratic freedom.”

Pillay also questioned whether another new anti-terror law – the third in two years – is necessary in the first place. “Knowing that Canada has had a robust anti-terror legislation in place, and that we have strong police powers in under the criminal code, why have those existing powers been so insufficient?” she asked.

“There are still no answers as to why our existing powers didn’t work – or if they didn’t work.”

Reaction from opposition parties was hesitant, and as Harper’s Conservative government has a parliamentary majority, the legislation is bound to be passed.

“It’s important to be able to protect our rights at the same time as we’re protecting our safety,” Thomas Mulclair, leader of the leftist New Democratic Party, told reporters, declining to denounce the bill outright. “We are capable of doing both at the same time, and we’ll make sure that this bill ensures that, and we’ll ask the appropriate questions.”

Wayne Easter, the Liberal Party’s shadow minister for public safety, also prevaricated. “We’re going to be talking to experts over the weekend,” he said. “I will be reporting to caucus next week. We would certainly want to see robust hearings into this piece of legislation.”

For Harper, the new law represents an opportunity to distract attention from economic news that is imperilling the future of his government, which is facing re-election next fall.

Tumbling oil revenues, massive layoffs in the energy sector and a sharp devaluation of the Canadian dollar in recent weeks have combined to throw the government’s plans into disarray.