This is an amendment that we tried to write in the most simple and straightforward manner, but as legal drafting is a technical exercise, it's probably difficult for people who have not looked at the act itself to realize that all this does is drop the word “lawful”:
For greater certainty, it does not include advocacy, protest, dissent, artistic expression or any other activity considered to be civil disobedience.
We're just removing the word “lawful”, and I'm happy to see that one of the changes the government has agreed to in amendment G-2 is identical to this change. This was a very large concern among technical witnesses, the legal community, and many community witnesses we had as well as for some of the law enforcement witnesses we had, who said the danger in casting such a broad net was that we would bring too many people into the purview of national security investigations and therefore run the risk of missing those who present the real threat to Canada.
So, again, it's a simple removal of the word “lawful”, and since the government has presented the same in its amendment G-2, I'm looking forward to the government supporting this amendment.