ON THE OCCASION OF THE ANNOUNCEMENT OF A
NATIONAL SECURITY POLICY FOR CANADA

27 APRIL 2004
OTTAWA, ONTARIO

The tabling of the National Security Policy is a significant - indeed historic initiative for the protection of our collective and individual security. For it is the first ever comprehensive and integrated safety and security vision:

• The first ever comprehensive and integrated threat assessment from international and national threats including escalating/emerging threats from trans-national terrorism, pandemics such as SARS, electrical blackouts and the like.

• The first to identify and articulate our national security interests as including not only the security of Canada and Canadians, but the security of our allies and increasingly the promotion and protection of international security.

• The first to provide a comprehensive blueprint for action to address those threats in six major strategic areas with corresponding structural initiatives including:

• Intelligence (involving the establishment of an Integrated Threat Assessment Centre);
• Emergency Planning and Management (involving a Government Operations Centre);
• Public Health (including the establishment of health emergency response teams).
• Transport Security, including marine and aviation security;
• Border Security, including facial recognition biometric technology, and
• International security.
  

Most important, this National Security Policy is anchored in a series of fundamental principles:

1. That the right to life, liberty and security of the person - the right to human security - is the most fundamental of rights, and the right upon which all other rights depend.
   
   
2. That the escalating and emergent threats constitute an assault on both the security of our democracy and on this most fundamental of rights - the right to human security. In a word, terrorism is a crime against humanity - the ultimate assault on human rights.
   
   
3. That the first order of government is to protect the security and safety of its people.
   
   
4. That the protection of our democracy and the security of our inhabitants will be realized in a manner that not only respects the rule of law, but is fundamentally anchored in these values.
   
   
5. That there is no contradiction between a commitment to security and a commitment to human rights. On the contrary, security is rooted in the protection of human rights and human rights is rooted in the protection of security.
   
   
6. That our shared citizenship in building a democratic society founded on the rule of law will be parallelled by the involvement of our citizenry in protecting the security of our democracy.
   
   
7. That to give expression to our shared citizenship - our shared commitment to security and human rights - we will be establishing a Cross-Cultural Roundtable on Security comprised of members of our ethno-cultural and religious communities across Canada, so as to mobilize our diversity as an asset, rather than have our diversity targeted or exploited as a weakness.
   
   
8. That our shared partnership and citizenship will be based on the principle of zero tolerance for terrorist crimes and zero tolerance for hate crimes. For terrorism and hate constitute an assault on the inherent dignity and equal dignity of all persons.
   
   
9. Our repository of experience and expertise in promoting democracy, pluralism, human rights and the rule of law also allow us to play a significant global role in the global struggle against terrorism, consonant with these values.