Pay attention

Dear editor:
When former prime ministers warn that we are losing our freedoms, we should pay attention!
Lake of the Woods resident (and former prime minister) John Turner has joined Jean Chrétien, Joe Clark, and Paul Martin in saying that Bill C-51, the anti-terror law, lacks any reasonable oversight mechanism to prevent abuses of privacy and civil rights.
Under C-51, the entire federal government becomes one giant spy agency eavesdropping on citizens and passing on information to CSIS (the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service).
C-51 prohibits unlawful interference with essential services or critical infrastructure. Are railways and pipelines included, and what does “unlawful” mean?
If town councillors and concerned citizens picket on railway or pipeline property, voicing concerns about the transport of oil (concerns over recent explosions, and to protect water and the land), will this be unlawful?
CSIS will be given the power to snoop on Canadians who are working with international environmental organizations; there does not have to be any threat of violence for CSIS to do its spying.
Targets will not be able to challenge the snooping in court because they will not know it is going on, and will not get notice when or how it is being done. They will not know what information is being collected or what is being done with it, or be able to stop collection.
SIRC, the Security Intelligence Review Committee, oversees CSIS. But its employees are part-time and do not review every wire-tap or e-mail interception.
SIRC does random sampling only. The Harper government got rid of a full-time watchdog, the Inspector-General, in 2012.
Furthermore, SIRC reviews CSIS operations only. Who will watch over the rest of government?
Sometimes, CSIS will have to ask a judge for a warrant to do something illegal (dirty tricks). But again, the target will get no notice, will not have a lawyer to protect him or her in court, and the judge will not know if CSIS is just fishing for information.
Let Mr. Harper know that C-51 will erode our freedom to speak out and disagree, and the right to organize to protest.
With respect,
Dave Schwartz
Kenora, Ont.,
Jim Johnson
Keewatin, Ont.,
and Peter Kirby
Kenora, Ont.