New legislation seeks more power for police, spy agencies
Canada’s Public Safety minister, Steven Blaney announced today the government has prepared new legislation to give security agencies more powers of investigation domestically and abroad.
It would also allow for protection of intelligence informants similar to that provided to police informants in criminal cases. The legislation, to be presented next week, would allow investigations into potential terrorists when they travel abroad where they would be tracked. Investigated, and ultimately prosecuted.
Minister Blaney made the announcement at a press conference today in the western resort city of Banff Alberta where he and provincial and territorial justice ministers have been meeting along with Andy Ellis, assistant director of operations for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), and RCMP deputy commissioner Janice Armstrong.
A statement on the Government of Canada website says the security situation and threats to Canada have changed dramatically in the past 20 years. It says, “..a radical individual or group of motivated extremists with access to technology can do significant harm to Canada from thousands of miles away. Threats to our national security do not stop at our border.
The government says that it is aware of more than 130 people with Canadian connections who were outside of Canada and suspected of involvement with terrorism-related activities.
Canada and other western nations fear that their citizens who travel abroad to join terrorist groups like ISIS (ISIL) and others, could return home to carry out domestic acts of terrorism.
Recently, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said there have some 63 active investigations on 90 suspects who intend to join violent conflicts abroad or who have since returned to Canada.
Some lawyers with experience in defending clients in national security cases are concerned especially about the new aspect of shielding the identity of intelligence sources. They say such sources should be available for cross-examination
A CBC new article quotes Steve Hewitt, a senior lecturer in Canadian and American studies in the history department of the University of Birmingham in England saying, “Informants provide information for a variety of reasons. Some are quite noble, others do it out of blatant self-interest, including the desire for money”.
Hewitt, author of Snitch: A History of the Modern Intelligence Informer, also said, “There must be external scrutiny through a court of law or, inevitably, abuses of justice will occur.
With files from CP, CBC
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