National security and human rights concerns in Canada : Préoccupations relatives à la sécurité nationale et aux droits de la personne au Canada

These developments, which are surveyed in Section 4, had the effect of creating new leadership nodes in the Canadian government, in the newly formed Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Canada, and in the office of the National Security Advisor to the Prime Minister. [...] According to the study’s editor, “Participants were deeply divided on the impact of the Act on civil liberties, ranging from those who felt that there was a minimal erosion of rights to those who regarded the Act as ‘un-Canadian’ and a betrayal of Canadian values.”19 At the heart of the original debate over C-36 was a set of concerns that included: (1) the necessity for the Act; (2) the definition [...] The third argument for the necessity of the Anti-Terrorism Act invokes the political and comparative roots of the Bill. [...] Concerns about the definition of terrorism have focussed on the breadth of the definition, the inclusion of motive, and some issues relating to criminal intent associated with the concept of facilitation as defined by the Act. [...] They argued that the motive requirement fits the unique nature of terrorist activities and that the definition, despite the worries of critics, was designed to limit the scope of the law rather than to encourage broad sanctions.