News from ICLMG

Seven Civil Liberties Priorities for the Next Parliament

By Tim McSorley, ICLMG National Coordinator

In the last, short session of Parliament that ended with the call of the federal election, the primary focus – for good reason – was managing the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. At the same time, there were major developments in regards to the impact of federal law enforcement, border control, intelligence and surveillance on the civil liberties and fundamental freedoms of people living in Canada. Unfortunately, they were often easy to miss and fell to the wayside.

While there were important discussions of Islamophobia and systemic racism, little was done to address it in Canada’s national security agencies or to recognize long-term harm. We are deeply concerned that the government is now looking to repurpose rights-violating laws that have been used in discriminatory ways in order to fight hate and racism.

In the coming weeks, the new session of Parliament will begin. While the Liberal Party remains in government, and the make up of the House of Commons remains largely the same, there are still opportunities to push for action on these issues. A minority government offers up the opportunity of improving the governing party’s legislation and policies since it cannot simply rely on a majority to prioritize its own agenda.

There’s no lack of issues that need to be addressed to protect human rights, fight racism and discrimination, and support fundamental freedoms overall, but we’ve identified seven key areas that the government must address when it comes to national security and anti-terrorism. Continue reading →

ICLMG submission to government’s “online harms” consultation

On September 25, 2021, the International Civil Liberties submitted feedback to the federal government’s proposal to tackle online harms.

Given our coalition’s mandate, our analysis focuses primarily on the inclusion of “terrorist content” as one of five areas of online harm. We also examine the proposal’s interaction with anti-terrorism laws, policies and activities, as well as how they overlap and raise concerns for other areas of the proposal (for example, the overall approach towards involvement of police, the impacts of censorship and policing based on vaguely worded definitions, etc.).

You can read our full submission here.

In our submission, we identify several worrisome and even troubling aspects to this current proposal that may in fact undermine the stated goals. These include:

  • the further expansion of problematic definitions of terrorism and its enforcement online, which have been shown to more often target the very communities which the government proposes to support with this new regime.
  • a questionable conflation of efforts to address wildly different harms which need very specific solutions
  • a monitoring and removal process that threatens freedom of expression and privacy rights, and which will likely have severe and significant impacts on already marginalized communities
  • new obligatory reporting rules to law enforcement and intelligence agencies and
    new warrant powers for CSIS
  • transparency and accountability requirements that require the addition of more robust obligations

We also raise questions about the form and approach to the consultation itself, which we and many other stakeholders have found to be wholly inadequate. We believe that in order to address the concerns raised in our submission and by others, the government must commit to extending and improving their consultation process before any new legislation is introduced.

We recognize the importance of tackling harmful content that can lead to violence, and have urged the government to take greater action. Unfortunately, there are deeply troubling aspects to this proposal that, unless addressed, we believe will lead to greater harms both for the population at large, as well as for the very communities the government states they wish to support.

 

Election 2021: National Security Platform Promises and Info Card

Federal Election 2021 is upon us. The outcome of this election could have a significant impact on the federal government’s approach to national security, anti-terrorism and the protection of civil liberties in Canada.

In that light, we have analyzed the various parties’ platform promises, but also their track records – which can often give an even better idea of what they will do (and not just what they say they will do). We hope it helps you to make an informed voting decision, and that you keep civil liberties in mind when you head to the polls!

Below you will find:

    1. An analysis of each party’s platform promises on national security
    2. The positions that the federal parties have taken on national security & anti-terrorism issues over the past two years

Continue reading →

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