Proliferation of Self-Serving Surveys and "Public Consultations"
The Liberal Government has informed that it is planning to strengthen its police powers by amending the Canadian Security Intelligence Service Act, the Criminal Code, the Security of Information Act and the Canada Evidence Act. Amending these laws is an exercise in expanding the definitions of what the police can do, making legal what was previously illegal. Towards this end, on November 24, it launched what it calls an online consultation on the topic "Modernizing Canada's Toolkit to Counter Foreign Interference."
The government's
declaration is worded in a manner that ipso facto
deprives
the people of their right to express their opinions on how
serious
matters of war and peace, and crime and punishment, are dealt
with. It
starts with the conclusion presented to it by the international
intelligence agencies which have created the bogey of "foreign
interference" in the electoral processes of democratic countries.
The
foreign interference considered is from the states which, in lock
step
with the U.S., it has declared "autocracies" that are waging a
brutal
battle to take over "democracies."
The government of Canada declared: "As the threat of foreign interference evolves, Canada's response needs to adapt. Domestic and international experts have noted that Canada needs to modernize its tools to counter the threat of foreign interference. Canada's closest allies and like-minded partners have also brought forward legislative initiatives to modernize their counter-foreign interference toolkits."
To cover-up its imposition onto Canadians of whatever changes it wants, the government says that "consulting with Canadians is an important step in this effort ... so that potential solutions are aligned with our national values, capture a wide range of expertise, perspectives, views and opinions, and respect Canadian fundamental rights and freedoms. The Canadian public has expressed interest in greater transparency, as well as deeper engagement with the Government of Canada on national security issues, including foreign interference."
We hear the term "Canadian public" used as an amorphous category -- something without a definite character or nature; unclassifiable. It would be more accurate if the government replaced this with the term "Canadian private" by which Canadians would readily comprehend that it is talking to the private interests which have usurped the decision-making power in this country.
The fact is that the U.S.-led Five Eyes spy agencies, NATO and NORAD officials and the "national security community" have put forward this agenda, but the government wants to pin it on the people. It goes so far as to say that Canadians should participate in the consultations because "together, we can protect Canadian values, principles, rights and freedoms from those who seek to harm our way of life." It is all to hide increasing police powers using government jargon for which Canadians pay millions of dollars every year.
Strengthening the powers of the political police is not the agenda established by Canadian citizens and residents, and bogus surveys called "public consultations" are a fraud. The suggestion that Canadian citizens and residents want to further divide the polity between good people and bad people, and that it is the political police who will decide who is good and who is evil, is beyond ridiculous. This is what the U.S. did through its secret torture sites following 9/11 with devastating results. It is what Canadians have already rejected when they rejected the discredited security certificate process after 9/11. By reinventing this division of the people once again in the name of protecting Canadian values, even more "reasonable limits" are imposed on their rights and freedoms while more and more the limits on the powers of the executive are lifted using self-serving laws which make doing both legal.
Canadians know full well how the police trample the just struggles of the people -- the Indigenous Peoples, the workers, environmental activists, anti-war fighters, the people of Quebec and many others. Trying to pass off the strengthening of police powers in the name of the people's wishes as revealed through self-serving "surveys" will not wash.
Among the expanded police powers wanted by the government are:
"-- modernizing the criminal code, including by introducing new foreign interference-related offences to better capture the evolving threat;
"-- providing Canada's national security agencies with the legal ability to share threat information with a wider set of Canadian partners than the federal government (e.g., Sharing information with Canada's private stakeholders to protect Canada's critical infrastructure);
"-- improving the ways that the legal system deals with intelligence information in administrative and criminal proceedings; and
"-- making sure that the Canadian Security Intelligence Service has modernized authorities to be able to adequately protect Canadians and Canadian institutions in a digital world (e.g., Amending intelligence collection authorities which are currently limited to information located within Canada)."
This article was published
in
Volume 54 Numbers 1-2 - January - February
2024
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmlm2024/Articles/M540017.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca