By Sheila Harrington Fear and its chilling power could deny us environmental protection and social justice.
If Bill C-51, the supposed Anti-terrorist Bill is passed, Canadians will lose many essential freedoms due to fear mongering. Media (plus social media), civil protest, and many forms of public dissent could legally be labelled terrorist acts. We will no longer be free to stand up to the bullies in our governments, corporations and our communities, out of fear of being arrested, detained, losing our jobs, or worse.
This act, as it is written now, creates a secret police force, ironically called CSIS, with vague powers to do virtually anything it likes: “If there are reasonable grounds to believe that a particular activity constitutes a threat to the security of Canada, the Service may take measures, within or outside Canada, to reduce the threat.” S. 12.1(1) This spy agency will be granted unspecified and scarcely limited powers of arbitrary, warrantless detention.
Craig Forcese, national security expert and associate professor of law at the University of Ottawa, warns that where protests deemed “unlawful” overlap with other security concerns, such as critical infrastructure including pipelines, “democratic protest movements with tactics that do not square in every way with even municipal law may properly be the subject of CSIS investigation and possibly even disruption.”
NDP’s Megan Leslie adds the proposed bill has serious implications for environmental and aboriginal groups.
Human rights lawyer Clayton Ruby points out, “there is very little oversight of CSIS activities.”
CSIS has a budget of over $500 million annually. It is overseen by SIRC which is staffed by four part-time committee members.
Once fear takes hold, our perceptions are narrowed and our minds are seemingly locked into pathways that lead to the worst actions and human conditions imaginable.
The Harper government claims that Canada is at risk from Islamic forces. What is the threat? Our current laws have the ability to curb potential terrorism. Thousands more people are impacted by increasingly polluted water and air from the fossil fuel industry. Canada is spending more money on weapons now as a percentage of GDP than during WWII. We are paying for this plus corporate tax cuts and financial subsidies that government continues to give the fossil fuel industry.
Through Bill C-51 if you protest corporate climate-changing business proposals, you may be considered a “violent anti-petroleum extremist.” (RCMP memo, February 2015)
Not only have many non-profit and charitable organizations been named as potential targets, but much of our media is also under fossil fuel control.
Postmedia has gained control over half of Canada’s urban daily newspapers. The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) has made an agreement with Postmedia to “achieve 100 per cent share of voice” for CAPP. This means that ads, articles, letters to the editor, et cetera will be increasingly focused on fossil fuels, instead of on options for renewable energy offers.
This path down the road of increased military action, reduced human rights, and promotion of fossil fuels is the biggest terrorist threat we face. It’s time to tell our governments to change direction. Contact all would be and current politicians, divest your investments in fossil fuels, and reduce consumption.
The path of a peaceful, sustainable future lies in renewable energy, which will build economic potential and reduce environmental and social catastrophe.
Sheila Harrington is a writer, teacher and conservationist who lives on Lasqueti Island.
