- OTTAWA - Two senior parliamentary
officers issued warnings Tuesday about the sweeping new powers in Canada's
proposed anti-terrorism bill.
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- Privacy Commisioner George Radwanski told MPs that Bill
C-36 would allow government to suspend the Privacy Act in the name of national
security.
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- George Radwanski
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- "This law as written could permit the creation for
instance of a Big Brother file on every Canadian," said Radwanski.
"It could permit government to disclose any information about you
to anybody it wants your employer, your insurer, you name it."
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- Information Commissioner John Reid warned senators that
Bill C-36 would prevent his office from challenging excessive government
secrecy.
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- Reid said Ottawa wants the power to suspend the Access
to Information Act. He said Canada is the only Western government to make
such a drastic proposal.
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- John Reid
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- "In point of fact, from what our allies our doing,
they are not making changes to their access to information or freedom of
information pieces of legislation. Only Canada is," Reid said.
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- Senators and MPs are shifting the focus of their debates
on the anti-terrorism bill.
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- Until now, they've focused on new police powers, such
as allowing suspects to be arrested without a warrant or criminalizing
participation in a new list of terrorist groups.
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- On Tuesday, the committees began considering the impact
on the rights of Canadians.
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- Conservative MP Peter MacKay believes the justice minister
would have the power to keep crucial decisions from proper review indefinitely.
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- Justice Minister Anne McLellan tried to reassure the
House. "The power given to the Attorney General to issue a certificate
is a limited one for very limited purposes."
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- But the privacy commissioner doesn't see it that way.
"It gives the minister unlimited power, in unlimited circumstances,"
said Radwanski.
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- Keith Coulter, chief of the secretive Canadian Security
Establishment, told a Commons committee there is also a need for expanded
powers to listen in on domestic communications.
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- Since the Sept. 11 attacks on the U.S., Ottawa gave the
CSE a one-time installment of $37 million to upgrade its technology for
eavesdropping on electronic communications.
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- CSE's mandate will soon be expanded to monitoring communications
that originate or end in Canada. It currently can eavesdrop only on foreign
communication.
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- Defence Minister Art Eggleton told the committee that
Canada's key partners in collecting and sharing communications intelligence
the United States, Britain, Australia and New Zealand already have
the powers to tap domestic communications.
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- "If we're to make a meaningful contribution to the
international campaign against terrorism, we must ensure that our own
legal framework is aligned with theirs," said Eggleton.
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- Some MPs were uncomfortable with the lack of judicial
authority needed for CSE to eavesdrop. The RCMP and CSIS both require a
judge's approval to wiretap.
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- Written by CBC News Online staff http://cbc.ca/cgi-bin/view?/news/2001/10/23/anti_terrorism011023
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