I debated whether to post this article by Michael Harris here. I decided there is a disturbing similarity to what we have been through and the horrific implications of C51.
In C51 will remake Canada in Stephen Harper’s Image, Michael Harris writes:
After ten years of governing by stealth and lies, Stephen Harper has finally laid his vision for Canada on the line. It’s Bill C-51.
This is Harper’s “War is Peace” moment. If anything can bring his decade of division, deception and deconstruction to a merciful end, it will be this piece of democracy-killing legislation.
Harris also says:
How can there be unfettered sharing of information between departments of government without massive and illegal privacy violations? With foreign governments involved, how in the world do we avoid another Maher Arar? If Harper is returned to government armed with C-51, his security, police and intelligence apparatus will be virtually above the law.
Harper already thinks he is above the law. He just changes it when it does not suit him–sacrificing the constitution, Charter, rights and democracy
Harris calls C51 “a manifesto for a police state”
Here’s what Harris says about C51 and the Charter:
Lurking behind this monstrous bill is Stephen Harper’s broader mission: the destruction by other means of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
The question needs to be asked. How did a piece of legislation that has raised the ire of four prime ministers, five former Supreme Court justices, First Nations Chiefs, the 36,000 lawyers of the Canadian Bar Association, 51,000 members of the Postal Union and even former CSIS agents ever make it out of the Department of Justice, let alone through the House of Commons?
The answer is simple. It emerged for the same reason that half a dozen other bills that were struck down by the Supreme Court did: federal lawyers in Justice didn’t care whether the bills were consistent with the charter.
This my friends is what Stephen Harper meant in 2006 when he said “You won’t recognize Canada when I’m through with it.”
He kept that promise. Which is why we have FATCA and C51.