Your Name
Your Street Address
Your Province and Postal Code
Today’s date
Name of MP
Address of Constituency Office
[find your MP here]
Dear [name of MP],
Allow me to express my concern, shared by a growing number of people in Canada, that a Bill C-51 is very dangerous legislation.
I agree with Communist Party of Canada and many other voices, who warn that would help further transform CSIS into a secret police force beyond the control of the public or even Parliament.
This Bill constitutes perhaps the most serious threat to free speech and civil liberties in Canada since the era of the War Measures Act. Existing anti-terrorist legislation, passed in 2001 and 2013, already goes too far — allowing “preventative arrests” and other violations of civil rights.
Last year Canada released a stamp honoring South African president and anti-apartheid fighter Nelson Mandela. Under this legislation, Canadians who supported him and his movement before he was released would have been called ‘terrorists’ and subject to arrest and conviction.
I am particularly concerned by this legislation tearing up of the principle of “innocent until proven guilty,” and allowing CSIS to to anything that does not kill or harm or “violate the sexual integrity of an individual.”
So, what could CSIS get away with now? Break-ins, computer hacking, draining bank accounts, ripping up passports, “smear campaigns,” kidnapping, indefinite detention?
Apparently, a judge must sign off in advance but, based only on a vague notion of national security in a secret warrant. Legal experts say this makes “judges enablers of executive illegality.”
It appears to me that this Bill will fully authorize and entrench the current practice of the RCMP and CSIS, which is to violate Charter Rights almost indiscriminately. I draw you attention to the plethora of recent news stories about the RCMP watching so-called “anti-petroleum activists” as well as indigenous organizations, a range of community groups, students, and no doubt the labour movement. The
Canada’s ill-advised experiment with the political police know as CSIS began over twenty years ago. There has been enough limitations put on the already quite limited democratic rights in this country. Political reality in Canada already greatly suffers from the reality of it being dominated by a handful of giant corporations. We don’t need more laws helping the ruling class.
As one of your constituents it is my request that you vote against Bill C-51, which cannot be “amended” or “improved”; it must be rejected by Parliament, and CSIS itself should be dismantled, not expanded.
Lastly, I would like to bring to your attention the campaign website of the Communist Party of Canada against this bill, www.communist-party.ca/stopc51
Sincerely yours,
[Name]