OTTAWA - The federal government tabled a new anti-terrorism bill yesterday to greatly limit the powers of Cabinet ministers to invoke executive decrees that could threaten civil liberties, but to expand the powers of authorities to scan airline manifests.
The new Public Safety Act removes the power of Art Eggleton, the Minister of National Defence, to declare any area of Canada a temporary military zone and restricts the right of ministers to respond to terrorist threats without waiting for Cabinet or parliamentary approval.
These controversial measures were contained in Bill C-42, drafted in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The government killed the legislation last week in the face of widespread opposition.
The freshly written bill will allow Mounties and security service officers to scan air passenger manifests for possible terrorists or for anyone with an outstanding warrant for a serious offence, described as any criminal offence carrying a penalty of five years or more in prison.
The legislation also provides stiff penalties for terrorist hoaxes and tightens controls on explosives and hazardous substances.
"The changes proposed in this legislation are just plain common sense," David Collenette, the Minister of Transport, said after the new bill was presented to the Commons. "It responds to the need for enhanced security while respecting the rights of Canadians."
Mr. Eggleton said the new bill will only allow him to call out the troops to protect military or allied property, such as visiting U.S. ships or aircraft stationed at civilian facilities.
Soldiers could not be deployed at this summer's G8 summit in Alberta to deal with potentially violent anti-globalization protesters, he said.
"We have narrowed the scope substantially," Mr. Eggleton said. "It can only deal with military equipment.... It has to be for only reasonable areas around that equipment. If somebody doesn't think it is reasonable, it can be tested in the courts."
Mr. Collenette said Ottawa also decided it was inappropriate to allow individual ministers to invoke interim emergency measures without any checks or balances from Parliament or the judiciary.
Under the new bill, an individual Cabinet minister must obtain Cabinet approval within 45 days for any emergency measure as opposed to 90 days and Parliament must be informed within 15 sitting days.
"Parliament made the case that there should be more scrutiny of these kinds of instruments and the provisions around them be debated in a timely fashion," Mr. Collenette told reporters.
"It brings the scrutiny of Parliament to bear very explicitly on an interim order ... and perhaps force the government to reconsider."
However, James Moore, the Alliance transport critic, expressed concern the revamped legislation is still open to abuse, saying the Prime Minister and Cabinet are not responsible for the individual decisions of ministers.
"What this will lead to will be the isolation of political liability around a minister and isolate that decision from the Cabinet," he said.
Bill Blaikie of the NDP said the bill does not allow Parliament much oversight on such measures as the emergency interim orders, and warned the establishment of military control zones still pose a problem.
"The power of the minister has been limited ... but one gets the impression that the language of what's left is still permissive enough that if they wanted to use it for some of the purposes that people were afraid they would, they still might be able to find a way to do it," he said.
Opposition MPs and civil libertarians had raised concerns the proposed law would bring back government by executive decree, reminiscent of the old War Measures Act invoked by Pierre Trudeau to deal with the October Crisis in 1970.
Bill C-42 would give Cabinet ministers the power to issue executive orders to deal with security threats in areas ranging from health and environment to air travel.
The powers would not be subject to the same parliamentary overview provided under the Emergencies Act, which replaced the War Measures Act in the mid-1980s to bring the emergency powers into conformity with the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Bill C-42 was a companion piece to the first piece of anti-terrorism legislation, a package giving police and politicians expansive new powers that was rushed through Parliament in December.
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