Open letter to Parliament: Amend C-51 or kill it
If, like me, you are confused about the rising chorus of opposition to the Harper government’s Bill C-51, this letter to all members of Parliament signed by more than 100 professors of law and related disciplines will explain the issues. An abridged version of their letter was published in the National Post last Friday under the headline “Amend C-51 or kill it.” I commend it to you.
The following is an open letter addressed to all members of Parliament and signed by more than 100 Canadian professors of law and related disciplines.
Dear Members of Parliament,
Please accept this collective open letter as an expression of the signatories’ deep concern that Bill C-51 (which the government is calling the Anti-terrorism Act, 2015) is a dangerous piece of legislation in terms of its potential impacts on the rule of law, on constitutionally and internationally protected rights, and on the health of Canada’s democracy.
Beyond that, we note with concern that knowledgeable analysts have made cogent arguments not only that Bill C-51 may turn out to be ineffective in countering terrorism by virtue of what is omitted from the bill, but also that Bill C-51 could actually be counter-productive in that it could easily get in the way of effective policing, intelligence-gathering and prosecutorial activity. In this respect, we…
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