Will Harper’s New Proposed Powers For CSIS And Police Affect “Khalistan Slogans” At Vaisakhi Parade

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BC Civil Liberties Calls Harper’s New Police Powers Dangerous, Misguided And Unconstitutional!

“Criminalizing people’s words and thoughts is misguided and won’t make Canadians any safer. We will be less free, less democratic and less likely to know who to keep an eye on. This new law will impose a broad chill on legitimate political speech without enhancing public safety, and is likely unconstitutional,” said Micheal Vonn, Policy Director of the BCCLA.

By R. Paul Dhillon

OTTAWA – Prime Minister Stephen Harper has unveiled the details of his government’s latest bid to give unprecedented powers to Canada’s police and intelligence agencies to pre-emptively arrest, jail, thwart would be terrorists and impede free speech by making unlawful certain political speeches and general promotion of terrorist ideology all to boost the anti-terror powers of Canada’s police agencies which some are saying goes too far and are dangerous to individual freedoms, misguided and most likely unconstitutional.

If Harper’s proposed laws are passed, they will:

*Lower threshold of proof for arrests.

* Give CSIS the power to “counter-message” or “disrupt radical websites and Twitter accounts,” whether in Canada or elsewhere.

*Allow CSIS to apply to a court to order terrorist propaganda removed from the Internet.

*Allow for some court proceedings to be sealed.

But will the legislation, which was introduced in the House of Commons shortly after noon on Friday, outlaw the “Khalistan slogans” and other anti-India speeches at Vaisakhi parade and other similar Sikh functions, which Canadian Sikhs say is their right to air to show the injustices done against them by the Indian government.

Indian officials, especially under the old Congress regime had been steadfastly lobbying Canadian officials to curb the frees speech of outspoken Canadian Sikhs who have been critical of India’s human rights violations in Punjab during the Punjab insurgency with thousands of encounter killings of innocent Sikh youth in Punjab by police as well as the large scale massacre of Sikhs in New Delhi in 1984 following the assassination of then India’s Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards.

Many independent international relief agencies as well as the current Indian administration has admitted the mass killing of Sikhs in New Delhi and surrounding areas was a case of genocidal massacre which was clearly backed by the authorities including high ranking members of the Congress party.

So it remains to be seen how the Sikhs continued plight to get justice for those crimes against humanity and a so-called independent homeland Khalistan will play out if the new powers are granted by Canadian parliament.

If the laws are passed over the next few months, which is expected to happen with the Conservative majority expected to prove everything outline by Harper’s new laws, then this year’s Vaisakhi parade could become more than the usual hot button and the laws may be put to the test if the usual fervor of the speeches and Khalistan slogan holds true.

At least you can expect the mainstream media to pump up the volume in relation to the Sikhs’ free speech rights and Harper’s new laws!

Harper’s  new bill would give the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) the authority to monitor, track and even pre-emptively disrupt the activities of suspected terrorists and terrorist sympathizers.

The BC Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA) – the organization that is currently suing the federal government over allegations of warrantless electronic surveillance of Canadians by the Canada’s electronic spy agency – reacted to the new Anti-terrorism Act, saying the bill, which includes measures to enhance the powers of CSIS, lower the legal threshold for police to detain people without criminal charges and criminalizes expressions of support for terrorist activities even where the speaker has no intention of committing a terrorist act, was misguided.

Micheal Vonn - Policy Director with BC Civil Liberties Association

Micheal Vonn, Policy Director of the BCCLA, said: “This radical expansion of national security powers is not sound security policy and presents a real danger to Canadians.  Our national security agencies have shamefully inadequate oversight and are hostile to accountability.  Canada has utterly failed to respond to the urgent need for national security oversight and instead, proposes an unprecedented expansion of powers that will harm innocent Canadians and not increase our public safety.”

Josh Paterson, Executive Director of the BCCLA, added: “Preventive detention permits holding an individual without charges based on mere suspicion of dangerousness. Expanding police powers to detain people without charges must be examined with the utmost scrutiny. Stripping an individual’s liberty where no criminal offence has been found to be committed – or where no offence is even suspected to have been committed – runs against the most basic principles of fundamental justice.”

Vonn added: “Criminalizing people’s words and thoughts is misguided and won’t make Canadians any safer. We will be less free, less democratic and less likely to know who to keep an eye on. This new law will impose a broad chill on legitimate political speech without enhancing public safety, and is likely unconstitutional.”

“Violent jihadism is not just a danger somewhere else,” Harper told the crowd in Richmond Hill. “It seeks to harm us here in Canada — in our cities and in our neighbourhoods, through horrific acts, like deliberately driving a car at a defenceless man or shooting a soldier in the back as he stands on guard at a War Memorial.”

But Harper failed to mention that both of those killers were homegrown WHITE Canadians and not Muslims or immigrants! But leaders like Harper think most Canadians are STUPID!