Thank you for asking because as you probably know, I was a lawyer for Justice Canada, worked on legislation, and have taken training in legislative interpretation and regulatory drafting. That is why I was quite shocked this legislation ever made it here. The Justice Canada lawyers that I know would never have said this is anywhere near to being constitutional.
The problem is that list that you read is just a list. It's an example, some examples of what would be threats to national security. There is no limit on the threat to national security. That “any activity” means any activity.
My problem is that under the bill, who gets to decide? Clearly, it's Canada and independent law enforcement officers. What's happening here is that there are an infinite number of offences that are being created. It's not knowable. We have a right as citizens, as a basic tenet of law, to know the offence for which we're being charged and to be able to predict it in the future. We know that we aren't allowed to steal things, so we don't steal things, or we know there are consequences.
Under this bill it's literally anything. That's a problem in law and it certainly doesn't correspond with or would survive a constitutional or charter challenge, and I think that the former Supreme Court justices have been pretty specific about that.
Thank you.