On October 16,press reports informed us that Canada was about to “update” its national security legislation to, you guessed it, better fight terrorism. Specifically, this new legislation is ostensibly designed to not only better counter actual terrorism, but “potential” terrorism:
“Canada’s Minister of Public Safety joined justice ministers from across the country in Banff on Thursday to unveil new measures to give CSIS agents more authority and better tools to track potential terrorist threats to Canada’s national security. Steven Blaney held a press conference from the Banff Centre and outlined the decision to join Canada’s global allies to fight the terrorist acts of ISIL.
“We are taking a clear stand against those who are committing atrocities against innocent civilians. We are also discussing how this action works in tandem with our efforts here in Canada under the Counterterrorism Strategy to address terrorist threats and to prevent Canadians from traveling to the Middle East, joining ISIL and other terrorist groups.” said Blaney.
Blaney says the government will take steps to thwart the radicalization of Canadians by terrorist groups.
“We are firmly committed to take strong action to address the threat of individuals who become radicalized to violence and the growing problem of extremist travellers. Canada like all nations has a responsibility to guard against its citizens travelling to areas of turmoil and participating in terrorist acts,” he said. Blaney says the CSIS Act, which was created in 1984, is now outdated and needs to be adapted to allow agents to better operate and investigate threats to our national security from abroad.
[…]
Blaney says the government will also take action to help agents protect the identity of sources, which is critical in the fight against home-grown terrorism.
(emphasis added)
Who is a “potential” terrorist in the eyes of governments? The answer is simple enough: “everybody”.
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