Canadian Anti-Terrorism Act
| Anti-terrorism Act | |
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| An Act to enact the Security of Canada Information Sharing Act and the Secure Air Travel Act, to amend the Criminal Code, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service Act and the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act and to make related and consequential amendments to other Acts | |
| Citation | Anti-terrorism Act |
| Enacted by | Parliament of Canada |
| Date assented to | December 18, 2001 |
The Canadian Anti-terrorism Act (French: Loi antiterroriste) was passed by the Liberal government of Canada in response to the September 11, 2001, attacks in the United States. It received Royal Assent on December 18, 2001, as Bill C-36. The "omnibus" bill extended the powers of government and institutions within the Canadian security establishment to respond to the threat of terrorism. The expanded powers were highly controversial due to widely perceived incompatibility with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, in particular for the Act's provisions allowing for 'secret' trials, preemptive detention and expansive security and surveillance powers.
This bill provides similar measures to that of the USA PATRIOT Act passed by the United States in the same timeframe.
The bill's passage has been compared to the government's activation of the War Measures Act in accordance to terrorist activity by the FLQ.
It was opposed by Marjory LeBreton, David Paciocco, Andrew Telegdi and others. Ziyad Mia, of the Muslim Lawyers Association of Toronto, "questioned whether the definition of terrorist activity would apply to a group that resisted, by acts of violence, the regimes of Saddam Hussein or Robert Mugabe," and pointed out that it criminalized the French Resistance and Nelson Mandela.
Anti-abortion violence was labelled as "single issue terrorism" by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service. Campaign Life Coalition (CLC), Canada's national pro-life group expressed concern that the new act would "cover anti-abortion violence such as shooting and stabbing doctors, and bombing and burning clinics." Peaceful anti-abortion protests would be exempt. In 1992, a year after the Bill C-43, the legislation to recriminalize abortion, was defeated by the Senate, a firebomb destroyed the Toronto Morgentaler Clinic. Abortion providers, Dr. Garson Romalis in 1994 in BC, Dr. Hugh Short, Ontario in 1995, Dr. Jack Fainman, Manitoba in 1997 were shot by snipers allegedly similar in style to the 1998 murder of Dr. Barnett Slepian in Buffalo, New York. Dr. Garson Romalis was attacked and stabbed in 2000 in Vancouver. In 2001 James Kopp was arrested in France charged with the murder of Dr. Barnett Slepian and the shooting of Dr. Short. Kopp was also connected with the shootings of Dr. Romalis, Dr. Fainman another US abortion provider. National Abortion Federation: History of Abortion in Canada
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