Vol. 78/No. 41      November 17, 2014

The proposed bill is the latest in a series of assaults on workers’ rights in the name of combating “terrorism.” Other proposed measures include lowering the threshold for “preventive arrests” and Bill C-13, now before the Senate, which would allow police access to people’s online records and bank account information if they “suspect” but not yet “believe,” they are involved in a crime.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced Oct. 23 that he would expedite C-44, the day after Michael Zehaf-Bibeau shot and killed Corporal Nathan Cirillo, a soldier on guard at the National War Memorial in Ottawa. Zehaf-Bibeau was then killed after he began shooting up the Parliament Building. Two days earlier Martin Couture-Rouleau was shot dead by police after he ran down two Canadian soldiers with a car in St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec.

The government had been holding up Zehaf-Bibeau’s passport and had seized Couture-Rouleau’s because of alleged ties to Islamic State. Both incidents followed Ottawa’s Oct. 7 decision to join Washington’s-led war against Islamic State in Iraq. The vote was 157 to 134, with the ruling Conservatives and the one Green Party member voting in favor and the opposition New Democrats and Liberals voting against. Canada is sending 600 troops, six CF-18 fighter-bombers, two surveillance aircraft and a refueling plane. Islamic State responded with appeals for supporters to carry out attacks in Canada.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police has disclosed that they are monitoring some 90 Canadian citizens as part of 63 “national security” operations.  
 
 
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