Monitoring Council for Rights and Freedoms Needed in Canada
Montreal, 4 february, 2003 – Given the scope of the repressive measures advanced by the government in the war against terrorism, Rights & Democracy believes that it is time to create a Council to monitor the rights and freedoms of Canadians.
Speaking before the parliamentary committee studying the Public Safety Act, Bill C-17, Jean-Louis Roy, President of Rights & Democracy suggested the creation of this new council with wide-ranging powers, which would be mandated to examine the conformity of application measures with the measures voted by the legislator.
Reporting to Parliament twice yearly, the council could study all federal laws relating to security and privacy, to evaluate whether they are justified or not and whether they violate the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and Canada's international human rights obligations.
"It is profoundly unacceptable that the Parliament of Canada use the current situation as an excuse to permit the creation of files on the private lives of Canadians and the establishment of information exchange networks among various departments and institutions, police forces and even foreign powers," said Mr. Roy, who shares the opinion expressed by the federal Privacy Commissioner, George Radwanski. Mr. Radwanski has stated that the Department of National Revenue's constitution of a massive database on all air travellers in the country represents an unprecedented attack against the fundamental rights of Canadians.
The massive database, which came into force at the beginning of October 2002, is Big Brother-like in scope and stores in excess of 30 pieces of information on travellers, including how the ticket was paid, who is travelling with whom and even which airline meal was chosen. The data is kept for six years and can be shared among many government agencies and compared with other government databases.
According to Mr. Roy, the data should be destroyed as soon as the clearly identified security objectives that are being sought have been met.
Bill C-17 will authorize ministers to adopt emergency orders to "counter a direct or indirect security threat or serious risk" under 11 different federal laws related to the environment, health, aeronautics, as well as food and drugs. Mr. Roy feels that these emergency powers should be severely limited and the Canadian public must be informed within 72 hours.
Rights & Democracy condemns all acts of terrorism, which violate and threaten our democratic system and the fundamental and universal values of human rights.
"Security and human rights go together. Over the past 50 years, we have understood that reinforcing individual and collective security depends on reinforcing human rights. Our challenge is to ensure complete respect for human rights, even when national security is at stake."
For More Information
Please contact Steve Smith (ext 255) or Louis Moubarak (ext 261) at Rights & Democracy, 514-283-6073.
