Just as Harper's conservatives began to debate Bill S7, The Combating Terrorism Act, on Monday afternoon, news broke out that two people had been arrested for conspiring to derail a VIA Rail train in the Greater Toronto Area. This serves as fresh justification for the controversial, unknown bill S7 and now, having passed the House of Commons on Wednesday night, it is Canada's next step in adopting a more draconian stance when it comes to civil liberties in the name of fighting terrorism.
The bill allows for "preventative detention" and "investigative hearings", techniques that waive constitutional rights in order to fight the government's definition of terror. By empowering the government to point out what is terrorism and what is not, we quickly forfeit our legally protected liberties and freedoms. Laws that grant authorities the ability to bypass our constitutional rights pose a much greater risk than the notion of true terrorism.
Haven't we learned anything after watching America's never ending "War on Terror?"
For more on Bill S7 and the the VIA Rail terror plot, check out these articles:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2013/04/24/pol-anti-terror-bill-s7-vote.html
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2013/04/24/via-train-terror-plot.html
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