I will be addressing you in French, but, as you can see, I can certainly answer your questions in English.
I am here on behalf of the Association des juristes progressistes, or AJP. It's an association of lawyers, law professors, law students and other women and men who work in the legal field. Founded in 2010, it has several hundred members, and intervenes on a number of issues of current interest, and on recent laws and regulations.
In my own practice, I do a lot of work in the realm of constitutional law, and on the constitutional validity of laws. For example, I challenged a provision of the Labour Code that limited farm workers' freedom of association, a provision of the Highway Safety Code that limited the right to demonstrate, and by-law P-6 enacted by the City of Montreal. At the moment, I am challenging the pit bull by-law—this always makes people smile—but I think that principles related to the validity of laws are of great concern, especially at the AJP.
Our association stated a position when Bill C-51was enacted. We came out against the measures in the bill for a number of reasons. One significant reason was that, in our humble opinion, most of the measures in the bill probably violate the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. That's why I'm here today to speak primarily about these measures. We intend to tell it like it is. A bill has been introduced to repeal certain provisions of Bill C-51, and consultations were promised during the election campaign. You will recall that the Liberal Party of Canada voted in favour of the bill, saying it would review the legislation later. We feel the time has truly come to do just that. Hence this presentation, which is the result of my colleagues' work. I won't spend much time on the subject being studied by the Committee; instead, I will focus on C-51.
I want to address two aspects. The first is the green paper, which was released to the public. The AJP has done a lot of legal education on the subject, and considerable public awareness work. What disappointed us about the green paper, and what disappoints us about these consultations, is that the green paper seems to present the current framework, including C-51, as something eminently necessary and/or positive. Naturally, we don't expect you to present the contrary view, but since this is a consultation, we believe the public should be able to comment with all the information in its possession.
It would have been interesting to note the controversies that the bill has sparked within the legal community, since most legal experts believe the law likely contains human rights violations. A constitutional challenge of these provisions, spearheaded by my distinguished colleague Mr. Cavalluzzo, is under way before the Ontario courts. We believe the public is entitled to this background.
As for the merits of the question, it's obvious we have a great deal to say, but I will limit myself to certain aspects of the provisions amending various acts, and will tell you why we think those provisions should be repealed.
The first consideration is the new crime of advocating or promoting terrorism. Specifically, anyone who knowingly communicates statements, while knowing that a terrorism offence will be committed or being reckless as to whether such an offence may be committed, is guilty of an indictable offence.
In our opinion, this provision serves no purpose, as there are already roughly 15 provisions governing all the terrorism offences, including terrorist or hate propaganda. The provision poses enormous problems with regard to freedom of expression. It is not just about people who have opinions different from that of the government of the day—we believe, of course, that this was the case at the time the law was enacted. It also applies to people with neutral positions, like journalists, professors and analysts. Such people might have an opinion about a conflict, but refrain from expressing it because that might cause someone, somewhere, to engage in some act. We believe the provision infringes freedom of expression, and that its usefulness has in no way been demonstrated.
On the contrary, this type of provision has an immense chilling effect.
Before my remarks, much was said about prevention initiatives, and about what is done to determine who is making such statements. You have created a provision for that purpose. I use the word "you", but I'm speaking in general terms, because I haven't heard anyone say they'd like to repeal this provision, other than something about a private member's bill.
You're ensuring that these discussions don't take place. Someone who might have thoughts of this kind, who needs support, and needs to talk with people from his community who would then ask him if he's really thought about what he's said, would refrain from talking about it, for fear of being charged under this provision. As a result, the discussions occur in somewhat more secret places. I think the provision is ineffective. In my view, it violates freedom of expression, and we will see what the court decides in that regard.
Furthermore, statements made in private benefit from no exception either, whereas other provisions do contain such an exception. I'm referring to discussions that take place in venues where one wants people to talk. One of the witnesses referred to a community where one wants people to discuss these ideas freely. Let me be very candid: as a lawyer, I would not advise my clients to have such discussions, due to the provision you've enacted.
Very briefly, I'd like to address the new powers granted to CSIS.
Mr. Cavalluzzo said that truly effective oversight power is needed, and I obviously agree, but first of all, we need to call on the Liberal government. It's the Liberal government that removed information-gathering powers from the RCMP, in the wake of the McDonald Commission.
You noted that granting these powers to CSIS was a step back. We're told that a judge can be seen beforehand. With respect, this does not account for our legal system, in which judges need to make decisions based on evidence. In this instance, a judge is being asked to guess whether a given measure could reduce a threat. So a judge who is not necessarily an expert in the field would have to determine whether a given measure would help prevent a threat, and after that, CSIS could act. Naturally, there is no way to present the judge with all the unforeseeable and spontaneous situations that can arise and justify granting a warrant. All kinds of things can happen in the course of a proceeding. Will it be necessary to go back before the judge each time?
We have a hard time understanding why this provision is needed, especially since, under the previous system, CSIS did not have these powers, and was already committing mistakes in good faith, according to my colleague Mr. Cavalluzzo.
I would now like to discuss a third point: preventive detention.
The Association des juristes progressistes believes the preventive detention scheme is already quite dubious under the Anti-terrorism Act, 2001. Indeed, the scheme permits preventive arrests if there are reasonable grounds to believe that a terrorist act will be committed. Even in such a case, a warrant must be obtained, whereas the provision proposed in Bill C-51 states that a peace officer can lay an information or arrest someone without a warrant, if he or she has reasonable grounds to believe that a terrorist act may be carried out.
I will cite the example given by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, which others have spoken about. It's the example of young Muslim adults having a lively conversation in the street. We don't know what they're talking about because we don't understand their language, but we wonder whether they might commit a terrorist act and whether they can be arrested preventively.
We believe this kind of provision goes very far and constitutes a major lowering of the thresholds for arrest and detention. For these reasons, it will probably be found contrary to section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
In the current context, where terrorism is the major concern and connections are made with the Muslim community, we believe it could lead to political profiling.
I was hoping to address other elements, but I will conclude my remarks with some comments on the no-fly list.
In our view, this list was already very problematic. Essentially, Bill C-51 codified the power of the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness to put Canadians on such a list. And in order to be removed from the list, one must apply to the Federal Court. I don't need to talk to you at length about access to justice, but I can certainly say a few words if you wish. It's not enough to show that the Minister was wrong; it must be shown that he acted unreasonably. It's a positively Kafkaesque scheme.
It's also interesting that people who are not entitled to fly can still go into schools and shopping centres, and to take the bus and the subway. When seen from this perspective, I think a no-fly list is absolutely useless. We have a lot of trouble understanding how it could be necessary.
I will conclude by telling you about certain reports on the subject from the United States. According to these reports, certain people's names were put on the no-fly list so they could be asked questions, and told that their name might be withdrawn if their answers were satisfactory. I am not saying that's the intention in Canada—far from it—but I think the risk is grave.
Obviously, we feel this violates the right to liberty. It's not the same thing as being arrested, but we believe it could violate the right to liberty, and section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Those are just a few examples of the problems caused by the provisions of Bill C-51; there is more.
Thank you very much.