“The Committee has done an excellent job in cataloguing the many, many flaws of the Harper administration’s now infamous Bill C-51. I am pleased that several of the ideas I presented in my brief to the Committee were included in the final recommendations, including:

• reducing the scope of CSIS kinetic powers, especially the most egregious power to violate the Charter;
• increasing the scope and resources of national security review bodies;
• removing the egregiously overbroad terminology ‘terrorism in general’; and
• enhancing the redress program for the no-fly list.

“However, it is also clear to me that the Government can and must go further to undo the damage of C-51. There are only two explicit repeals recommended in this report – s.12.1(3) of the CSIS Act and the two-court system for criminal cases under the Canada Evidence Act. My recommendation was to repeal entirely sections 1, 3, 4 and 5 while modifying section 2 of C-51. Without a full repeal and replace strategy, the government risks building their national security policy on a deeply flawed foundation. We are also left with a set of laws that risk violating the fundamental liberties of all Canadians. I urge the Government to take this report as a floor, not a ceiling, of what is possible in undoing the harms of C-51.”

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