Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
There are a number of points I'd like to make. Mr. McColeman said it was unfortunate that I brought up a particular ethnic group. I didn't bring up a particular ethnic group: I was quoting the evidence. There was evidence before this committee from witnesses who testified about the effects this particular legislation would have on the Muslim community in this country. He makes it sound as though I'm somehow bringing up something that wasn't talked about before, in some sort of untoward political realm. I was doing nothing more than reviewing some of the evidence that was heard before this committee.
The Conservatives talk about balance. I agree with that. In any country, the proper balance between security and liberty is an important thing to pursue. It was mentioned that we have to give law enforcement the tools they need. That's exactly the point I'm making: the evidence before this committee is that the police have the tools they need under the current Criminal Code. Nobody has made a case for any extraordinary powers, other than just rhetoric: that we need it because there is terrorism or we need it because the world has changed. That's the only argument I'm hearing about this. Nobody has come before this committee...in fact, I didn't hear from any police agencies, I don't recollect, that came before this committee and said, “Here are the kinds of cases we're working on and here are the kinds of situations that we need these powers for”. I didn't hear that.
I'll give one maybe more extreme example to illustrate my point. You could give the police the power to kick down Canadians' doors and search their houses tomorrow, and that would probably make us safer, but Canadians wouldn't accept that. Why? Because that doesn't strike the necessary balance.
In this country, here is what the law has been since 1867. It has been that Canadians have the right to walk down the street and not be arrested unless a police officer of the state has reasonable and probable grounds to suspect that they have committed a crime. Other than that, we have liberty, because the state has no right to put me in jail or to truncate my liberty unless it can demonstrate that.
This bill changes that. This bill says that the state can preventatively arrest someone, based not on what they've done, but on what they might do, based on suspicion. It's no longer on reasonable and probable grounds, it's on mere suspicion. And if they let you out after three days, I guess they just give you a cup of coffee and say, “Sorry about that”. I don't know if anybody has been in jail for two or three days, but I don't take that lightly. I don't think any parliamentarian should take the fact lightly that this bill would give the state the power to throw someone in jail for two or three days because we suspect that they might do something.
Now, I want to correct something Mr. Norlock said about the Supreme Court of Canada. They didn't say this bill is “wholly appropriate”. That makes it sound like the Supreme Court of Canada endorsed this bill. What the Supreme Court of Canada said was that this bill is not unconstitutional. That doesn't mean that it's well advised. It doesn't mean that the Supreme Court of Canada thinks it's a good thing.
In 1970 when the Liberal government passed the War Measures Act at a time of apprehended insurrection, we suspended civil liberties in this country. We saw police lock up...I think hundreds and hundreds of Quebeckers in particular were rounded up and thrown in jail without charge and kept there. Now, as bad a violation as that was, it was justified at the time because it was a period of what was called “apprehended insurrection”. There was at least an evidentiary basis to the invocation of those powers. There were kidnappings. There was a great fear gripping the streets.
We don't have that here today. Nobody has come before us and said that there is any factual basis in this country right now, other than just fear, which...of course the Conservatives play on fear all the time with Canadians to justify their legislative agenda, but no fact...there's no fact.