Vol. 79/No. 13      April 13, 2015

The bill was introduced in Parliament on Jan. 30 in the wake of the killing of two Canadian soldiers in separate incidents in the capital in October by self-declared jihadists. Using these incidents, and Ottawa’s participation in the imperialist military coalition fighting against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, Prime Minister Stephen Harper declared the “threat to national and global security” posed by Islamic State requires the government to use more spying and police powers.

Harper also announced March 24 that Ottawa’s military mission in Iraq will be extended by a year and widened to include bombing of Islamic State targets in Syria.

The bill expands the power of Canada’s spy agencies, grants police wider power to take people into custody, opens up broader spying on the Internet and other attacks on political rights.

The bill was approved by Parliament Feb. 23 in a 176 to 87 vote with the Conservative and Liberal parties voting for and the New Democratic Party voting against. The Public Safety Committee is now holding hearings on the legislation to consider possible amendments before it can become law. The hearings end March 31.

“We remember too well how after the attacks of 9/11 the CSIS [Canadian Security Intelligence Service] and the RCMP [Royal Canadian Mounted Police] harassed many Muslims and workers from other racialized communities in their workplaces, resulting in job losses and harassment by employers and co-workers,” Hassan Yussuff, president of the Canadian Labour Congress, said in a statement released on the eve of the March 14 actions. The CLC represents more than 3 million unionized workers. “We are opposing this bill on behalf of those communities and because if passed into law it will compromise the rights of all our members and all Canadians.”

“It leaves peaceful work stoppages, wildcat strikes, and other forms of nonviolent civil disobedience that may be deemed unlawful, susceptible to far-reaching interference and disruption by the RCMP and CSIS,” Yussuff said. “Think of peaceful yet ‘unlawful’ activism that won women the right to vote in Canada, ended racial segregation in the U.S. and defeated Apartheid in South Africa.”

In one of three February editorials against the proposed law, the editors of Canada’s national English-language paper The Globe and Mail accused Ottawa of granting the CSIS the power to interfere with legitimate dissent.

“Why does the bill do so much more than fight terrorism?” the Globe editors asked, saying the bill could allow CSIS to target Native people blocking a railroad line, a party advocating Quebec independence or environmental activists demonstrating against the building of a pipeline.

The breadth of opposition to the bill reflects the fact that sections of the capitalist class in Canada question whether the bill’s sweeping attacks on democratic rights, and the opposition it engenders, are necessary at this time.

Organizers of the March 14 protests included the provincial government and Service Employees’ Union in British Columbia, the advocacy group Leadnow and Open Media, an organization dedicated to online rights.

“C-51 is a bill that could seriously endanger our right to protest peacefully,” New Democratic Party federal leader Thomas Mulcair told the Montreal rally of more than 500. Shouting “Harper terrorist, Trudeau complicit,” the demonstrators marched to the offices of Liberal Party leader Justin Trudeau to demand he oppose the law.

“In the context of the deepening worldwide capitalist economic crisis and its impact in Canada, the ultimate target of this legislation — initially aimed in witch-hunt fashion at those the government claims are Muslim jihadists — are working people and our unions who will more and more resist the efforts of Canada’s ruling capitalist families to save their system on our backs,” Beverly Bernardo, Communist League candidate running in Trudeau’s Papineau district in the October federal election, told protesters she was marching with in Montreal.

“This law is a legal tool that can be used to close the political space we need to organize, strengthen our unions and chart an independent road forward for workers and working farmers in this country,” Bernardo said. “This is why this law needs to be defeated.”

Hundreds turned out in Edmonton, chanting “Kill the bill.” Some 1,500 joined the protest in Toronto and more than 1,000 in Vancouver.

Support for bill plummets

A poll released following the March 14 s reported only 38 percent support for the bill, with 50 percent opposed, a sharp drop from 82 percent approval in February.

Information about ongoing activities by the “Stop C-51 campaign” can be found at www.stopc51.ca.  
 
 
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