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The arrest of two Ottawa men on charges linked to terrorism comes with Parliament just weeks way from considering new legislation to give police and security agencies more power to try to prevent or counter terrorists.
A day after a gunman attacked Parliament Hill in October, Prime Minister Stephen Harper told the House of Commons that new laws giving police more powers to watch, detain and arrest suspected extremists are “already underway and will be expedited.”
There were suggestions the government might also legislate against the spread of jihadist propaganda on the Internet.
Then, on Friday, Ottawa resident Carlos Larmond, 24, was arrested at Montreal’s Pierre-Elliott Trudeau airport, and is charged with attempting to leave the country to participate in a terrorist activity abroad, as well as participating in the activity of a terrorist group. Larmond’s twin brother, Ashton, 24, is charged with facilitating a terrorist activity, participating in the activity of a terrorist group, and instructing to carry out an activity for a terrorist group.
Only 17 people have been convicted of terrorism and related offences in Canada since 2001. Five others await trial in three separate cases. In July, a sixth Canadian was charged with taking up arms in Syria and has not returned to Canada.
About 80 radicalized Canadians have returned home from fighting with, or working to support, the Islamic State (ISIL) militia in Syria and northern Iraq. An estimated 145 or so remain on battlefields or in support positions. At least 93 others are believed to have been planning to join the fight.
On Thursday, while expressing solidarity with France over the shooting attack on the Paris office of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, Harper said his new anti-terrorism bill will be tabled shortly after Parliament resumes in late January.
At first glance, the arrests in Ottawa and the horrific events in France would seem to strengthen his hand to move ahead with the legislation.
But the government, so far at least, hasn’t tried to play up the arrests for political mileage, say some experts.
So far, no RCMP press conference has been held about the Larmond brothers’ arrest, quite unlike the recent cases of attempted attacks against the B.C. Legislature and VIA rail bomb plots, says University of Ottawa terrorism expert Wesley Wark.
“So there was some prudent downplaying here, it seems to me, among other things, to avoid charges that they were staging any political theatre with the arrests, also to avoid any pitfalls when these two come to trial.”
Harper said Thursday that “the reality is that our security agencies are able, in the vast majority of cases, to identify threats that are out there and to prevent them from coming to fruition.”
In the absence of details about the proposed additional powers Conservative legislation may contain, the chief question for many remains whether new powers are actually needed.
A Senate committee inquiry is studying the issue and expects to report in the summer.
A law against leaving or attempting to leave the country with the intent of committing an act of terrorism was created in 2013.
Charges for facilitating a terrorist activity, participating in the activity of a terrorist group, and instructing to carry out an activity for a terrorist group have been on the books since December 2001, when the then-Liberal government enacted the Anti-terrorism Act in response to the Sept. 11 attacks on New York City and Washington.
The act provided exceptional powers to police and others to gather intelligence on terrorist threats at home and abroad. It established several new categories of crime, including participating in, financing and otherwise facilitating a terrorist activity. It allowed the federal cabinet to usurp judicial powers and unilaterally decide whether certain groups are terrorist organizations, strip them of charitable status, seize their assets. And it gave courts authority to imprison terrorists and their handlers for life.
Twenty federal statutes were amended to make way for the powers, reshaping important legal concepts and the landscape of Canadian criminal law: Arrest without warrant, detention without charge, limits on the right to remain silent.
The act also empowered the federal government to overrule court orders to disclose sensitive information, created the Security of Information Act, which makes it a crime to disclose or have unauthorized possession of information the government deems sensitive and safeguarded, expands police and government powers to monitor Canadians’ telephone conversations and to override access to information and privacy laws.
It also put a new standard of proof on police and prosecutors to prove terrorist offences are committed out of religious, ideological or political motivations, to distinguish terrorism from ordinary crimes. Legal academics and others feared that could lead to political and ethnic witch hunts and turn terrorism trials into political and religious trials.
The act was the most massive, controversial and complex legislation enacted in Canada. It was drafted and made law in just three months, thanks to the Liberal government’s decision to cut off debate in the House of Commons.
While it shifted the relationship of power between the state and its citizen, fears that it could lead to religious witchhunts, questionable arrests and detention, and eventually seep into use in general criminal law have not materialized. Some of it’s most contentious provisions have been endorsed by the Supreme Court of Canada.
imacleod@ottawacitizen.com
Twitter.com/macleod_ian
查看原文...
A day after a gunman attacked Parliament Hill in October, Prime Minister Stephen Harper told the House of Commons that new laws giving police more powers to watch, detain and arrest suspected extremists are “already underway and will be expedited.”
There were suggestions the government might also legislate against the spread of jihadist propaganda on the Internet.
Then, on Friday, Ottawa resident Carlos Larmond, 24, was arrested at Montreal’s Pierre-Elliott Trudeau airport, and is charged with attempting to leave the country to participate in a terrorist activity abroad, as well as participating in the activity of a terrorist group. Larmond’s twin brother, Ashton, 24, is charged with facilitating a terrorist activity, participating in the activity of a terrorist group, and instructing to carry out an activity for a terrorist group.
Only 17 people have been convicted of terrorism and related offences in Canada since 2001. Five others await trial in three separate cases. In July, a sixth Canadian was charged with taking up arms in Syria and has not returned to Canada.
About 80 radicalized Canadians have returned home from fighting with, or working to support, the Islamic State (ISIL) militia in Syria and northern Iraq. An estimated 145 or so remain on battlefields or in support positions. At least 93 others are believed to have been planning to join the fight.
On Thursday, while expressing solidarity with France over the shooting attack on the Paris office of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, Harper said his new anti-terrorism bill will be tabled shortly after Parliament resumes in late January.
At first glance, the arrests in Ottawa and the horrific events in France would seem to strengthen his hand to move ahead with the legislation.
But the government, so far at least, hasn’t tried to play up the arrests for political mileage, say some experts.
So far, no RCMP press conference has been held about the Larmond brothers’ arrest, quite unlike the recent cases of attempted attacks against the B.C. Legislature and VIA rail bomb plots, says University of Ottawa terrorism expert Wesley Wark.
“So there was some prudent downplaying here, it seems to me, among other things, to avoid charges that they were staging any political theatre with the arrests, also to avoid any pitfalls when these two come to trial.”
Harper said Thursday that “the reality is that our security agencies are able, in the vast majority of cases, to identify threats that are out there and to prevent them from coming to fruition.”
In the absence of details about the proposed additional powers Conservative legislation may contain, the chief question for many remains whether new powers are actually needed.
A Senate committee inquiry is studying the issue and expects to report in the summer.
A law against leaving or attempting to leave the country with the intent of committing an act of terrorism was created in 2013.
Charges for facilitating a terrorist activity, participating in the activity of a terrorist group, and instructing to carry out an activity for a terrorist group have been on the books since December 2001, when the then-Liberal government enacted the Anti-terrorism Act in response to the Sept. 11 attacks on New York City and Washington.
The act provided exceptional powers to police and others to gather intelligence on terrorist threats at home and abroad. It established several new categories of crime, including participating in, financing and otherwise facilitating a terrorist activity. It allowed the federal cabinet to usurp judicial powers and unilaterally decide whether certain groups are terrorist organizations, strip them of charitable status, seize their assets. And it gave courts authority to imprison terrorists and their handlers for life.
Twenty federal statutes were amended to make way for the powers, reshaping important legal concepts and the landscape of Canadian criminal law: Arrest without warrant, detention without charge, limits on the right to remain silent.
The act also empowered the federal government to overrule court orders to disclose sensitive information, created the Security of Information Act, which makes it a crime to disclose or have unauthorized possession of information the government deems sensitive and safeguarded, expands police and government powers to monitor Canadians’ telephone conversations and to override access to information and privacy laws.
It also put a new standard of proof on police and prosecutors to prove terrorist offences are committed out of religious, ideological or political motivations, to distinguish terrorism from ordinary crimes. Legal academics and others feared that could lead to political and ethnic witch hunts and turn terrorism trials into political and religious trials.
The act was the most massive, controversial and complex legislation enacted in Canada. It was drafted and made law in just three months, thanks to the Liberal government’s decision to cut off debate in the House of Commons.
While it shifted the relationship of power between the state and its citizen, fears that it could lead to religious witchhunts, questionable arrests and detention, and eventually seep into use in general criminal law have not materialized. Some of it’s most contentious provisions have been endorsed by the Supreme Court of Canada.
imacleod@ottawacitizen.com
Twitter.com/macleod_ian
查看原文...
