When Bill C-51, the Anti-terrorism Act 2015, was tabled in Parliament this spring, Canada’s leading human rights organizations called for the Bill to be withdrawn. The International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group Amnesty International, the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association, the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, the Canadian Muslim Lawyers Association, La Ligue des Droits et Libertés and the National Council of Canadian Muslims have stated from the outset that the serious human rights shortcomings in Bill C-51 are so numerous and inseparably interrelated that the Bill should be withdrawn in its entirety. We believe that any national security law reform should instead, first, be convincingly demonstrated to be necessary and should then proceed only in a manner that is wholly consistent with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the country’s international human rights obligations.

Disappointingly, Bill C-51 has passed and is poised to become law. But the fight isn’t over yet. Too much is at stake. Over the past few months, we saw public concern and opposition to Bill C-51 grow as Canadians learned more about the Bill and the threat it poses to fundamental rights and freedoms. Now that it has passed, if we are to see the Anti-terrorism Act 2015 repealed, it is crucial that Canadians continue to have conversations in the months to come about security, human rights, and basic freedoms – with each other and with those seeking office in the fall’s federal election. We believe that the government has never made the case for Bill C-51 beyond the simple assertion that it “needs” additional powers to protect public safety. But it has provided no explanation as to why Canada’s spy agency needs unprecedented and troubling disruption powers.  It has not made a credible case for the vast, opaque and unaccountable all-of-government information sharing regime Bill C-51 creates.  And, it has provided no evidence for how no-fly lists with appeal provisions that lack due process actually improve aviation security and public safety.

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Ottawa – The International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group (ICLMG) is happy to announce the appointment of Dr. Monia Mazigh as its new National Coordinator. Ms. Mazigh is a well known academic, author and human rights advocate.

The ICLMG, created in the aftermath of the September, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States, is a national coalition that brings together some 43 NGOs, unions, professional associations, faith groups, environmental organizations, human rights and civil liberties advocates, as well as groups representing immigrant and refugee communities in Canada. In the context of the so-called ‘war on terror’, its mandate is to defend the rule of law and promote civil liberties and human rights set out in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, federal and provincial laws, and international human rights instruments.

In recent months, the ICLMG has played an active role in building opposition to Bill C-51, which was adopted in the Senate on June 9^th in spite of huge public opposition from a vast spectrum of Canadian society.

“With her personal experience and broad knowledge of national security issues and policies, Monia Mazigh is well positioned to lead ICLMG’s efforts for the repeal of C-51 and the implementation of robust review and oversight mechanisms over national security agencies” said Dominique Peschard, the coalition’s Co-Chair.

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Canada’s compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) will be examined by the Human Rights Committee (HRC) this summer. The ICLMG has sent a brief to Geneva stating our concerns and Canada’s contraventions to the ICCPR, including those regarding the Anti-terrorism Act of 2001, the no-fly list, the security certificates, the Arar and Iacobucci commissions, CSEC,  Bill C-51, Bill C-44, and the Budget Bill and the alarming trend of increasing discretionary ministerial powers and use of secret evidence in court.

Submission summary  

ICLMG has examined the list of issues published by the HRC in October 2014 in relation to Canada’s sixth report, and submits that certain Canadian laws, policies, and practices, with respect to those issues, contravene several provisions of the international covenant, which contraventions are set out below. In particular we must emphasize recent Canadian Bill C-51 which has substantially extended these contraventions in a most serious way.

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