The Canadian government is politicizing terrorism by proposing redundant laws and not hiring “enough people to chase down the bad guys”, says Liberal opposition Senator Colin Kenny in an interview with the Ottawa Citizen newspaper.
In a question and answer session with the Citizen’s Dylan Robertson Senator Kenny, a founding member and former chair of the Senate national security committee, was asked about planned new anti-terrorism legislation which would include preventive arrests. His answer:
“I have a list of eight bills with the word “terrorism” in the title since 9/11. It’s a whole lot of legislation, none of which seems to do very much.
“If you go back to 2001, the Anti-terrorism Act seems pretty comprehensive. Preventive arrests are dealt with in that act. It seems sort of strange that the government is forging ahead on legislation that isn’t being asked for, and isn’t providing more funding, when (spy agency Canadian Security Intelligence Service) CSIS and the RCMP don’t have enough people to chase down the bad guys.”
Asked why the government was planning more preventive arrest legislation, the Senator answered:
“The government sees this as a wedge issue, and they hope to appear as strong, forceful people in favour of taking action against terrorists. I think they hope their opponents will be concerned about civil rights, but I suspect the opposition will instead talk about redundancy.
“I think we have an increasingly concerned populace. The handling of this issue is, at least in the government’s mind, fundamental to their re-election.”
A federal election will be held no later than October of this year. The Conservative government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper has been in power since 2006.
More information:
Ottawa Citizen/Dylan Robertson – Q and A: Sen. Colin Kenny on anti-terror legislation – here
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