Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I was in Washington on Monday and Tuesday with the World Jewish Congress, so our American friends are here. I want to say that at Congress and numerous meetings we had with legislators, they pointed out that Canada was a beacon leading the legislative approach to promoting safety from terrorism in society. It certainly felt good as a Canadian to be in the U.S., and thank you for being here with us.
I am pleased to be here today, along with Shimon Fogel, to speak on behalf of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, the advocacy arm of the Jewish Federations of Canada.
Jews are consistently targeted by hate and bias-related crimes in Canada at a rate higher than any other identifiable group. While this ancient toxic hatred is not unique to our country, it is rightly constrained to the margins of liberal democratic societies such as ours. However, anti-Semitism is increasingly manifesting in brutal acts of terrorism inspired by warped Islamist ideology, as we've all seen in the recent tragic events in Belgium, France, and Denmark. When terrorists strike, it is often against the Jewish community. There is a significant justified fear among many Canadian Jews that what has taken place in European cities is equally possible here.
I'm sure you're all familiar with the recent video posted by al Shabaab calling for an attack on the West Edmonton Mall. Some of you may be surprised to learn why this particular target was selected, as opposed to, say, the Rideau Centre. The West Edmonton Mall was chosen specifically because its owners are Jewish, a fact that understandably heightens anxiety in our community.
We are grateful that the current government and its predecessors have taken significant steps to protect Canadians from terrorist violence. The communities at risk security infrastructure program and the Justice for Victims of Terrorism Act are recent, integral initiatives that have helped make our lives safer.
Our vibrant community is diverse, full of divergent points of view, and represented across the political spectrum. There is, however, a significant consensus in support of additional measures to counter terrorism in general, and in support of Bill C-51 in particular.
I'm going to concentrate my remarks on four aspects of the bill that we have found through our community consultations to have particular resonance.
The first element of Bill C-51 that I would like to discuss is the provision for the seizure of terrorist propaganda. This seizure would empower the courts to order the removal or seizure of vicious material often encouraging the murder of Jews. Removing this heinous propaganda, particularly from the Internet, would limit its capacity to radicalize Canadians and inspire attacks.
Again, at our recent meetings of the World Jewish Congress, we had members from Europe, and I must say they live in fear. They fear all that terrorist promoting on the Internet, the jihadi terrorist websites, is really out of control and needs to be removed. They speculate or wonder why we're able to remove heinous criminal things like pedophilia from the Internet, but not terrorist rantings.
Our community is committed to promoting civil liberty and free expression, but neither can be absolute. While the seizure of terrorist propaganda would place limits on acceptable speech, it is in our view a legitimate and appropriate restriction, demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society.
We have seen increasingly numerous examples of attacks that are inspired by the messages of terrorist groups, but that are not the result of direct calls for specific actions. The seizure of terrorist propaganda would address this trend, and contribute to efforts to counter radicalization in Canada.
The second element is the criminalization of the advocacy or promotion of terrorism. This is an important complement to the seizure of terrorist propaganda. Existing criminal laws on incitement are very specific and require an incident that will likely cause a breach of the peace. Radicalization is a cumulative phenomenon, with no single input necessarily leading directly to an attack.
As we have seen, individuals are increasingly perpetrating terrorist attacks on their own initiative, not due to any single call for action. This provision addresses these limitations and enables the arrest of those fuelling extremist violence. Some critics have argued that this provision is too broad. However, terrorist recruiters and plotters have likely already taken note of the limitations of existing legislation and adjusted their approach accordingly. This enables them to continue encouraging attacks while technically remaining on the right side of the law.
Recently, a founding member of al Qaeda turned MI-5 double agent, Aimen Dean, recounted to the BBC his experience skirting U.K. laws prohibiting incitement to terrorism. He was free to give theological justification promoting al Qaeda's actions without violating the law. But he noted, “You can't specifically urge someone to go. You can't specifically call for an attack. You have to be clever about how you phrase your words.” The appeal by al Shabaab was deemed by the RCMP to be “a very general comment. It wasn't a specific threat.”
Bill C-51 would make general calls for terrorism offences a criminal offence, making it more difficult for individuals or groups to encourage attacks against Canadians. It would deny to those who are intent on inspiring, radicalizing, or recruiting Canadians to commit acts of terror a legal way to be clever but dangerous with their words.
While the seizure of terrorist propaganda and the criminalization of advocacy or promotion of terrorism are important tools, they are not by themselves sufficient to confront the twin scourges of terrorism and radicalization. We recommend the establishment of a parallel national de-radicalization program focused on marginalizing violent extremism within affected communities. Such a program could work with both communities targeted like ours by terrorism and those grappling with radicalization. Our community stands ready to do its part in the endeavour to ensure that the Canada we love stays safe for all its residents.
This program would complement C-51 and would help communities battling radicalization to empower moderate voices and de-legitimize hate. Combined, Bill C-51 and a national de-radicalization program could go a long way toward preventing individuals from choosing the path of terrorism in the first place.
The third element I wish to discuss is oversight. CSIS's expanding role is an important modernization that will further enable the disruption of terrorism before Canadian lives are in peril. However, just as Canadians stand to benefit from a more robust counter-terrorism that emphasizes prevention, a concurrent and measured increase in the review of CSIS's activities is necessary.
SIRC has done a good job with a limited mandate and even more limited resources. Both should be expanded.
Oversight of CSIS was one of the most cited issues noted during our community consultations. Unfortunately, due to the limitations of time, I am not able to speak about all seven of our specific, concrete recommendations.
I will mention two and invite you to refer to the written brief we have submitted to the committee, which describes all of our proposals in detail.
We believe that SIRC's mandate should be strengthened to enable review of CSIS's activities across government agencies. This would render all CSIS operations accountable to the same degree. We also believe that the chair of SIRC should be an officer of Parliament, required to provide regular reports to Parliament on its review activities.
The fourth and final element of Bill C-51 that I wish to discuss is privacy. We support empowering government departments to share information more effectively for security purposes. However, some of the language in the proposed security of Canada information sharing act could be adjusted to establish sufficient limitations and safeguards to ensure that intrusion into the privacy of Canadians is not abused.
Specifically, we recommend that the bill be amended to constrain information sharing to threats to the security of Canada as defined in the CSIS Act and that the scope of sharing stop short of “to any person, for any purpose” set out in proposed section 6.
Additionally, the committee should consider updates to the Privacy Act to make government institutions more accountable going forward.
Before I conclude, I would like to suggest one more item for your consideration. Marc Garneau's private member's Bill C-510 is currently before Parliament and has been endorsed by all parties. This important legislation would extend hate crime penalties beyond houses of worship to schools and community centres. I encourage the members of this committee to consider dropping the zero in its number and including the contents of Bill C-510 as an amendment to Bill C-51. Barring that, I hope you will work to ensure that Mr. Garneau's private member's bill passes quickly.
In conclusion, Bill C-51 contains important measures that will help to counter radicalization and prevent terrorist attacks. While we believe there are areas for improvement, this legislation is necessary and beneficial to update Canada's anti-terrorism tool kit.
Thank you.
