The line has been drawn between Wellington-Halton Hills MP Michael Chong and his constituents who oppose the government’s anti-terrorism legislation, Bill C-51.
On March 14, what started as a group of fewer than 20 people, soon tripled to over 60, in a rally protesting the anti-terrorism legislation proposed by the federal government.
The march was one of about 70 similar events occurring across Canada on Saturday, organized by the Leadnow.ca civil action website, said Fergus march organizer Jerry Prager.
When asked what his biggest concern was over Bill C-51, Prager said “the lack of oversight. It’s that there’s no control of parliament.”
He continued, “Everything’s a secret with this government and so it becomes increasingly untrustworthy; so the fact that there’s not going to be any oversight except … from the (Prime Minister’s Office) PMO … if the PMO is running the country, then it’s not quite the system that was put in place a long time ago.”
The group carried signs showing their dislike for the bill and used noisemakers while they marched from the front of Chong’s Fergus office at 200 St. Patrick St. East, down the hill, around the corner and through the parking lot by the library. For about an hour the group gained supporters and voiced their concerns.
One of the protesters was Muriel McEachern, 90, who said, “I just had to come, it was so important because democracy is at a crossroads.”
McEachern said she has been following the anti-terrorism legislation since it was presented.
“It’s threatening because of the way we’re being treated like we have no say; we have nothing; they just put in what they want,” she said.
Her big concern is the treatment of veterans, but she went to the rally because she worries for her grandchildren and great-grandchildren, she said.
Eventually, all protesters gathered in the parking lot of Chong’s office and began chanting: “Michael Chong, you know it’s wrong,” and “stop the bill and make it right” and “What do we do? We fight back. Canadian values are under attack.”
Before Chong made an appearance, the crowd changed to a “Michael Chong, come out” chant.
As promised before the rally began, Chong came to the parking lot and spoke to the protesters, answering questions and explaining his view of the Bill for about 45 minutes.
“I’m in support of Bill C-51,” he started to a chorus of boos from the crowd. “It introduces a number of changes to a number of pieces of legislation that I think are necessary in the current context.”
He said he supports the changes to the criminal code that will allow the RCMP to charge people if the police have reason to believe they “may” commit a terrorist act.
“It’s still a criminal code charge, which means it still has to go in front of a judge and that judge still has to believe beyond a reasonable doubt that the individual may have committed a terrorist offense,” he said.
Chong also said the RCMP needs more jurisdiction.
“There are individuals out there that the RCMP is desperately trying to get off the streets and cannot, because the current law does not allow them to do so,” he said. “They are scrambling to try to keep up … and that’s why we need this legislation.”
He said he also supports the legal framework the legislation would set up for the “no-fly” list. He said it would allow people who are inadvertently put on the list to appeal it, as well as allow the government to put people who are traveling for “purposes of terrorism” on the “no fly” list.
Further, Chong said he supports the bill’s mechanism to “create a new offence in the criminal code of promoting terrorism in general.”
Demonstrators voiced concern that protesting would be seen as a criminal offense under the bill.
“No, not at all,” Chong said. “The bill makes it clear that peaceful protests, peaceful advocacy and peaceful dissent are not subject to the provisions of the code.
“What it does do is, if a … radical environmentalist were to blow up a pipeline, that would be under the provisions of the bill.”
Chong also addressed the concern about oversight when it comes to the privacy of Canadians.
“Bill C-51 will strengthen oversight in one regard,” he said. “Before CSIS or other security agencies can override your charter rights with respect to surveillance, they need to get a judge’s approval to do that.”
However, Chong did say security agency oversight is one area of the bill where he does not agree with the government.
He said that currently security and intelligence agencies are overseen by the Security Intelligence Review Committee appointed by the Prime Minister.
“I don’t believe it has sufficient independence from the government to oversee these activities,” he said. “So I believe strongly that this committee needs to change and that it should be a committee made up of elected parliamentarians that are not appointed by party leaders but elected by MPs in the House of Commons, in order to ensure that they have sufficient independence to oversee the government’s activities in respect of intelligence surveillance.”
Chong concluded the demonstration saying that he would take the expressed concerns back to his colleagues but was firm in saying he was still in support of Bill-51.
“I agree with you that Bill C-51 is not going to solve our problems with respect to terrorism,” he said. “But I think this bill is a reasonable step to close some of the gaps that exist in Canadian law, otherwise I would not be supporting it.”
