E-Petitions are now a Thing, and There's One Regarding C-51 (Signing is Easy, and You Should)

There is (at least) one thing you can do, while we wait for more news and the opportunity to be a part of consultations. E-petitions are now apparently a real and legitimate thing that the Canadian Parliament supports on their website (since December 4th of last year, it seems), and there's a petition called e-308, which calls on the Government to:

1. Engage in comprehensive review of the the Act in its entirety through detailed and diligent consultation with a broad cross section of experts and authorities on the Act and its effects.
2. Remove from the Act those provisions which, through expert testimony, are found to stand in conflict with or to be in violation of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
3. Create, empower, and fund the office of Ombudsperson for Privacy and empower and fund the office of the Privacy Commissioner and civilian review boards, such as SIRC, to oversee and evaluate the secret activities of Canada's security services; CSIS, CSE, and the RCMP.
4. Ensure and commit in law that any subsequent amendment to the Act or such new legislation, as may be in future brought forth by any government, not impinge upon the privacy of citizens and be structured within a framework that is consistent with the historic continuity of Canadian Charter rights and with international human rights law.

These all seem like good steps to me, and I found out about this petition through the Canadian Journalists for Free Expression, one of the groups who have filed a Charter challenge against the bill.

I think signing this petition could be effective, but the deadline is early September, so please do so sooner rather than later.

I think it could be effective because I've seen the effect of a petition with a lot of signatures, at least in local (municipal) politics. It was an important element of the successful fight to stop a gambling facility from being put up near my home. But in order to be effective, petitions have to be properly managed. The people involved have to be within the relevant geographic area (in this case, Canada, but in the case of the example where I've seen a petition work, those collecting signatures had to turn away or remove names of people who weren't living within the city limits). Petitions work when politicians know that the people who might vote for them are the ones that signed. And the e-petition format on the Parliament of Canada website allows politicians to know that (you provide your postal code). So... worth it. In less time than it took you to read this paragraph, you could officially add your voice to those calling for C-51's Charter-breaching provisions to be removed.

For those interested in creating an e-petition of their own, go here. If you would like to learn about the process, go here.

Private Members Bill to be Introduced to Repeal C-51

Although I haven't been posting to this blog, it isn't because I haven't been watching for news to share with you. There just hasn't been that much. The Liberals' election promise to hold nationwide consultations about how to modify our anti-terror laws remains unfulfilled almost a year after the election, and despite a claim that this was at the top of their agenda after the election. Which is disturbing given that the new CSIS powers have been in operation this whole time, we know they have been used, but few details other than that are available. The Canadian Civil Liberties Association and Canadian Journalists for Free Expression filed a Charter challenge over a year ago, but that remains mired in a court process awaiting a reply from the government.

The most promising news is that MP Randall Garrison is reported to be preparing to present a private member's bill to repeal C-51. CPAC has a page that is supposed to include video of a news conference where he discusses this, but the video doesn't seem to be working for me. I've sent him an email asking for more information, and will post when I learn more.

I made Another C-51 Presentation. This Time at a University!

Below I've linked the presentation I'm proudest of so far. Not because I delivered it in a stellar fashion (I mostly just read my speaking notes) but because I was given the opportunity to present to a university-level criminology course. I would like to thank Josephine Savarese for offering me that opportunity. I hope that maybe some of them (and some of you who are reading this) might participate in whatever public consultations the government engages in. They say they will hold full public consultations, and I will post here as soon as I hear anything more concrete than that about where and when.

On February 9th, I presented the material linked below to students of Criminology 3643: Terrorism: An Introduction. As always, feel free to share and reuse this material with appropriate attribution.

All files are located here.

I also like this presentation because over the past several months I've started reading Roach and Forcese's book about C-51, which gave me more of the historical context, and I was able to put that into the presentation. It's satisfying to place the current situation in a broader narrative, and readers of this blog may be interested in that broader narrative.

I made another presentation about C-51.

On January 19th, I had the privilege of presenting a lunch and learn session about the information sharing portions of C-51 (the first part, the Security of Canada Information Sharing Act) to the Association of Records Managers and Administrators (ARMA) New Brunswick Chapter. It has taken me a little while to review the PowerPoint and clean up the speaking notes to more closely reflect what I actually said, as opposed to what I had written out beforehand. But that has been done now, and here are those presentations, with speaking notes. As always, anyone who wishes to is free to reuse this material, provided you attribute anything I've written to me, and don't attribute anything I've quoted from somewhere else to me, because I have relied heavily on the work of others and they deserve credit.

Here's a .pptx version, a .ppt version, and a .pdf version.

I have another presentation scheduled for mid February, this time on C-51 more broadly. I will post that up here as well. Given the new Liberal government has pledged to consult with Canadians and amend C-51, I hope that these materials can inform some of the debate around potential amendments to the bill. I would encourage all Canadian readers of this blog to go to an engagement session in their area if possible. I'll post more information about the process the government is following as I learn more about it. At the moment not a lot is known, although slide 14 does list what I knew as of January 19th.

In the Election Tommorrow, Remember C-51

I had intended to post more on this blog over the summer and fall, but life got in the way. So just a quick note, before the election tomorrow.

This is a close 3 way race. Your vote counts more than it would typically. So if you're not planning to vote, please reconsider. And because it's likely to be a minority government, the Greens could be a powerful force, so don't take my saying that it's a 3 way race to mean "don't bother voting Green".

And when you vote, don't forget that this happened:

And that after that, the Liberals supported the legislation so as not to appear soft on terrorism going into an election campaign, while publicly stating that they didn't like the legislation and would amend it if elected.

Those who have read this blog know why I think we need to remember and impose some political consequences for parties (or individual MPs, but in this case, anyone who was a party member voted with their party) that support legislation like C-51.Please remind others who may have forgotten, or may be unaware.

C-51 passed on Tuesday

As of 5:30 PM Tuesday, Ottawa time, bill C-51 passed the Senate. All of the Liberals who were present voted against, along with the two independent senators who were present. All of the Conservatives who were present voted for it.

The breakdown is as follows:

Voted for C-51:

• 44 Conservative senators

Voted against C-51:

• 26 Liberal senators
• 2 independent senators
• Anne C. Cools
• Elaine McCoy

Were not present to vote:

• 6 Conservatives
• A. Raynell Andreychuk
• Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu (the seconder of C-51, currently under investigation by the Auditor General for expenses violations)
• Jacques Demers
•  
• 2 Liberals
• 3 "Independents"
• Patrick Brazeau (formerly Conservative, currently suspended due to sexual assault allegations)
•  Michael Duffy (formerly Conservative, currently suspended due to issues with senate expense claims)
• Pamela Wallin (formerly Conservative, currently suspended due to issues with senate expense claims)

Further details to follow (I'll update this post - I just have to stop for tonight because it's late) but if you want to know who voted which way, go here for the vote breakdown, and here for full name, party affiliation, geographic constituency and contact information for each senator.

Final vote on C-51 scheduled for Tuesday at 5:30 Ottawa time

I was expecting that the final Senate vote on C-51 would take place yesterday. But looking at the Senate debates, it appears to have been delayed until Tuesday at 5:30. So that's how long you have to express your views to your senators.

The Hon. the Speaker: Pursuant to rule 7-4(5)(c), the standing vote is deferred to 5:30 p.m. at the next sitting, with the bells to be rung at 5:15 p.m.

...
Hon. Elizabeth (Beth) Marshall, pursuant to notice of June 3, 2015, moved:

That when the Senate next adjourns after the adoption of this motion, it do stand adjourned until Tuesday, June 9, 2015, at 2 p.m.

The Hon. the Speaker: Is it your pleasure, honourable senators, to adopt the motion?
Hon. Senators: Agreed.

I've only had time to skim the recent debates in the Senate, but it appears that Senators have each been receiving hundreds to thousands of e-mails opposing C-51. I sent e-mails to all of the Conservative Senators from New Brunswick. No response yet.