Canada's bill C-17 was passed by the House and was given first reading in the Senate.

In a written submissions to the House Of Commons Legislative Committee, the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association wrote:

This bill purports to "enact measures for implementing the 1975 Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention in order to enhance public safety" which is the greatest hypocrisy as the only terrorists known to have used biological weapons are American in the Anthrax Attacks.

In fact it is an omnibus bill that modifies 23 other pieces of existing legislation in ways that are unreasonable constraints on a free and democratic society:

• Introduces the discretionary power for a Minister to issue interim orders without consulting Parliament under eight different Acts ¹ (Ss.11, 27, 34, 66, 67, 95, 99, 102, 103 and 104). Unlike regulations, there is no approval, publication or consultation process before the interim order becomes law.

• Removes many of the current procedural safeguards that are in place to ensure legal and Charter compliance as well as parliamentary scrutiny by exempting these orders from the Statutory Instruments Act. This Act requires the Department of Justice to examine proposed regulations to see if they: are authorized by the statute; are not an unusual or unexpected use of the statutory authority; do not trespass unduly on existing rights and freedoms and are not inconsistent with either the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Canadian Bill of Rights.

• Enables inspectors to carry out searches and seizures without warrant under the Quarantine Act (S.106 12(2)).

• Allows the Minister Interim to issue interim orders under the Quarantine Act which would implement any` of the provisions of the Mshepa at his or her sole discretion, and the order would be law for a year if confirmed by the Governor in Council (S.102).

• Provides for a reserve pool of military judges for call-up in event such as martial law (S.77).

• Amends the Privacy Act that would allow the information collected by airlines to be distributed to foreign powers without their knowledge or consent (S.98) Between this bill and the Customs Act, individuals arriving in Canada or leaving Canada, not only by aircraft but by any kind of conveyance or public transport, the pertinent data to their travel plans can be collected and distributed among the police authorities. Indeed this would allow the information to be distributed among foreign countries as well - a list of 35 items to be fed into Capps For Canadians.

• Allows disclosure of information collected by airlines to any peace officer based on a "reasonable belief" that it would assist in the identification of a person for whom a warrant has been issued in respect of specified offenses - there is no requirement that these offenses actually be linked to terrorism.

• Modifies the National Defense Act to include NORAD as one of the treaties that can be used to invoke the special force of the Canadian Armed Forces in an emergency (S.75).

Clearly from the debates in the House, this legislation was introduced in response to 9/11, which makes it another piece of Fraudulent Legislation if 9/11 was an Inside Job.

Links:

• Privacy in the post-9/11 environment Privacy Commissioner of Canada.
• Written Submissions To The House Of Commons Legislative Committee On Bill C-17, January 30, 2003
• International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group - Anti-Terrorism Legislation November 7, 2002.
• CBA Says Bill C-17 Poses Serious Threat To Privacy Rights Of Canadians
• >Bill C-17 Speech in the House, Public Safey Act, May 9, 2003
• Public Safety Act Speech in the House, November 5, 2002, by John Bryden.