SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Canadians are mobilizing to shut down a surveillance bill they say would give the government too much power. (Photo: StopC51.ca)
#StopC51: Protests Grow Against Expansive Canadian Surveillance Bill
Day of action set for 'every province across Canada' against so-called anti-terrorism bill
Mar 14, 2015
Canadian activists are taking part in a weekend of action against the controversial C-51 surveillance bill currently making its way through Parliament.
Supporters of the bill say it would protect the nation against terrorist attacks, but critics charge that it would give the government ever more expansive and invasive spying powers.
If passed, C-51 would give up to 17 government agencies access to Canadian citizens' private information, including their financial status, medical history, and religious and political beliefs. The Canadian Security Intelligence Service would also be given the power to spy on Canadians and foreign nationals living in the country, while the Royal Canadian Mounted Police would be granted increased powers of preventive arrest.
Protests against C-51 are slated to take place in "every province across Canada," organizers said on Friday. Many of those actions will take place outside the offices of 13 conservative Ministers of Parliament who support the bill.
"This bill disproportionately targets indigenous communities, environmental activists, dissidents, and Muslims, many of whom are already subjected to questionable and overreaching powers by security officials, [and] will make it easier and ostensibly lawful for government to continue infringing upon the rights of peaceful people," reads a statement from the organizers.
Among those raising their voices against the bill are human rights and free speech groups like Amnesty International, Canadian Journalists for Free Expression, and OpenMedia.
Steve Anderson, executive director for OpenMedia, told Yahoo! News on Friday, "More and more Canadians from all walks of life are concerned about this bill.
"We're just hoping to make that more clear to the government and educate more Canadians, because ... the real kind of challenge for those of us who understand the dangers of the bill is to educate [other] Canadians," he added.
Canadian Journalists for Free Expression last week hosted a teleconference with NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, who warned that C-51 was "an emulation of the American Patriot Act" and that Canadian intelligence agencies have the weakest oversight in the Western world.
"No matter what we do, no matter what laws we pass, we cannot throw away all of our rights, all of our liberties, all of our traditional freedoms because we are afraid of rare instances of criminal activity," he said at the time.
On Saturday, the message to Canadian officials was clear. "We think that the government should go back to the drawing board...work in consultation with the privacy commissioner [and] seek the opinions of experts," Anderson continued.
Hearings on C-51 are scheduled to continue when the House reopens on March 23.
On Twitter, the actions are being updated under the hashtag #StopC51. #stopc51 Tweets
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, The U.S. is on a fast track to authoritarianism like nothing I've ever seen. Meanwhile, corporate news outlets are utterly capitulating to Trump, twisting their coverage to avoid drawing his ire while lining up to stuff cash in his pockets. That's why I believe that Common Dreams is doing the best and most consequential reporting that we've ever done. Our small but mighty team is a progressive reporting powerhouse, covering the news every day that the corporate media never will. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. And to ignite change for the common good. Now here's the key piece that I want all our readers to understand: None of this would be possible without your financial support. That's not just some fundraising cliche. It's the absolute and literal truth. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. Will you donate now to help power the nonprofit, independent reporting of Common Dreams? Thank you for being a vital member of our community. Together, we can keep independent journalism alive when it’s needed most. - Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Nadia Prupis
Nadia Prupis is a former Common Dreams staff writer. She wrote on media policy for Truthout.org and has been published in New America Media and AlterNet. She graduated from UC Santa Barbara with a BA in English in 2008.
Canadian activists are taking part in a weekend of action against the controversial C-51 surveillance bill currently making its way through Parliament.
Supporters of the bill say it would protect the nation against terrorist attacks, but critics charge that it would give the government ever more expansive and invasive spying powers.
If passed, C-51 would give up to 17 government agencies access to Canadian citizens' private information, including their financial status, medical history, and religious and political beliefs. The Canadian Security Intelligence Service would also be given the power to spy on Canadians and foreign nationals living in the country, while the Royal Canadian Mounted Police would be granted increased powers of preventive arrest.
Protests against C-51 are slated to take place in "every province across Canada," organizers said on Friday. Many of those actions will take place outside the offices of 13 conservative Ministers of Parliament who support the bill.
"This bill disproportionately targets indigenous communities, environmental activists, dissidents, and Muslims, many of whom are already subjected to questionable and overreaching powers by security officials, [and] will make it easier and ostensibly lawful for government to continue infringing upon the rights of peaceful people," reads a statement from the organizers.
Among those raising their voices against the bill are human rights and free speech groups like Amnesty International, Canadian Journalists for Free Expression, and OpenMedia.
Steve Anderson, executive director for OpenMedia, told Yahoo! News on Friday, "More and more Canadians from all walks of life are concerned about this bill.
"We're just hoping to make that more clear to the government and educate more Canadians, because ... the real kind of challenge for those of us who understand the dangers of the bill is to educate [other] Canadians," he added.
Canadian Journalists for Free Expression last week hosted a teleconference with NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, who warned that C-51 was "an emulation of the American Patriot Act" and that Canadian intelligence agencies have the weakest oversight in the Western world.
"No matter what we do, no matter what laws we pass, we cannot throw away all of our rights, all of our liberties, all of our traditional freedoms because we are afraid of rare instances of criminal activity," he said at the time.
On Saturday, the message to Canadian officials was clear. "We think that the government should go back to the drawing board...work in consultation with the privacy commissioner [and] seek the opinions of experts," Anderson continued.
Hearings on C-51 are scheduled to continue when the House reopens on March 23.
On Twitter, the actions are being updated under the hashtag #StopC51. #stopc51 Tweets
Nadia Prupis
Nadia Prupis is a former Common Dreams staff writer. She wrote on media policy for Truthout.org and has been published in New America Media and AlterNet. She graduated from UC Santa Barbara with a BA in English in 2008.
Canadian activists are taking part in a weekend of action against the controversial C-51 surveillance bill currently making its way through Parliament.
Supporters of the bill say it would protect the nation against terrorist attacks, but critics charge that it would give the government ever more expansive and invasive spying powers.
If passed, C-51 would give up to 17 government agencies access to Canadian citizens' private information, including their financial status, medical history, and religious and political beliefs. The Canadian Security Intelligence Service would also be given the power to spy on Canadians and foreign nationals living in the country, while the Royal Canadian Mounted Police would be granted increased powers of preventive arrest.
Protests against C-51 are slated to take place in "every province across Canada," organizers said on Friday. Many of those actions will take place outside the offices of 13 conservative Ministers of Parliament who support the bill.
"This bill disproportionately targets indigenous communities, environmental activists, dissidents, and Muslims, many of whom are already subjected to questionable and overreaching powers by security officials, [and] will make it easier and ostensibly lawful for government to continue infringing upon the rights of peaceful people," reads a statement from the organizers.
Among those raising their voices against the bill are human rights and free speech groups like Amnesty International, Canadian Journalists for Free Expression, and OpenMedia.
Steve Anderson, executive director for OpenMedia, told Yahoo! News on Friday, "More and more Canadians from all walks of life are concerned about this bill.
"We're just hoping to make that more clear to the government and educate more Canadians, because ... the real kind of challenge for those of us who understand the dangers of the bill is to educate [other] Canadians," he added.
Canadian Journalists for Free Expression last week hosted a teleconference with NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, who warned that C-51 was "an emulation of the American Patriot Act" and that Canadian intelligence agencies have the weakest oversight in the Western world.
"No matter what we do, no matter what laws we pass, we cannot throw away all of our rights, all of our liberties, all of our traditional freedoms because we are afraid of rare instances of criminal activity," he said at the time.
On Saturday, the message to Canadian officials was clear. "We think that the government should go back to the drawing board...work in consultation with the privacy commissioner [and] seek the opinions of experts," Anderson continued.
Hearings on C-51 are scheduled to continue when the House reopens on March 23.
On Twitter, the actions are being updated under the hashtag #StopC51. #stopc51 Tweets
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.