Yes, briefly, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.
As you know, the New Democrats are wholly opposed to Bill C-17 for all the reasons we spoke about when we were studying this bill and hearing from the witnesses. The New Democrats believe that no foundation has been laid by the government for this bill.
There are some serious concerns about the civil liberties impact that this bill would have, including giving police powers to arrest on a mere suspicion and the power to compel evidence and force witnesses to testify, and indeed, allowing courts to lock people up for up to a year without charge. We find this bill is a serious incursion against Canadian civil liberties, so we're wholly opposed to this bill, and we'll vote against it.
But we did hear from some witnesses, Mr. Chairman, about the sunset clause, which is currently set at five years in this bill. If this ill-advised bill were to pass, in the witnesses' views they wanted a very short sunset clause of two years so that Parliament could keep a very tight leash on, have a very close look at, and a very tight rein on what we all realize are serious derogations of Canadian civil liberties, justified in the name of fighting terror.
I think it behooves all of us as parliamentarians to protect Canadian civil liberties. We can do that by making sure that this bill, if it passes, which I hope it doesn't...but if it does, we can look at the impact of this bill in two years' time instead of five years' time.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.