Information on C-36, C-35, C-42 and other threats to Civil Liberties

  • Bill C-35: Expands the definition of a 'protected person' to all visiting ministerial conference delegates, making such people immune from prosecution in Canada. Became law (received Royal Assent) on April 30, 2002.
  • Bill C-36: Allows for 'preventive' arrests (detention of persons simply on the grounds of suspicion); includes provisions for forced testimony; and greatly expands state security agencies' legal right to spy on people by secretly intercepting communications and to use this as evidence in court. Became law (received Royal Assent) on December 18, 2001.
  • Bill C-42: Allows the minister of defence to declare 'military security zones' within Canada, and allow the armed forces to restrict access to these areas, and search anyone in the vicinity. The bill was withdrawn in the face of public outcry and strenuous objections from the Bloc Quebecois regarding potential breach of sovereignty in Quebec.
  • Bill C-55: Basically the same as C-42 with the somewhat comical proviso that the declaration of a 'military security zone' could only be justified by the existence of stationary military equipment within the zone in question (i.e., a jeep would have to be driven into the zone and parked before the declaration could be made). See: 2nd Reading of C-55, and Parliamentary debates for more info.

    Links

      Defence of Canadian Liberty Committee - make sure to check out the Liberty vs. Security section

      Bill C-36: Civil Liberties in Canada Under Attack! - info. primarily on C36

      Hate Bill C-36? Wait Until You Meet its Brother - by Naomi Klein

      C-35: Keeping the World Safe for McDonald's - abridged version of an Ontario Indymedia posting

      C36 Info at NoLogo.org

    "A time comes when silence is betrayal. We are called to speak for the weak, for the voiceless, for victims of our nation and for those it calls enemy, for no document from human hands can make these humans any less our brothers and sisters." - Martin Luther King, Jr.

    We are at the moment when our lives must be placed on the line if our nation is to survive its own folly. Our only hope today resides in our ability to recapture the revolutionary spirit and go out into a sometimes hostile world declaring eternal hostility to poverty, racism and militarism. We can no longer afford to worship the god of hate or bow before the altar of retaliation." - Martin Luther King, Jr.

    "First they came for the Communists, and I didn't speak up, because I wasn't a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up, because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up, because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time there was no one left to speak up for me." -Pastor Martin Niemoller, 1945, Germany

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