Editorial
The War Against Civil Liberties
Under the signboard of the "war against terrorism", the countries of the NATO alliance are granting draconian powers to their police and intelligence agencies and severely restricting the civil liberties of their own citizens. There are increasing signs that this was one of the demands placed on them by the United States in the secret talks that have taken place since September 11th.
Bill C-36, Canada's new Anti-terrorism Act being debated in Parliament contains provisions almost identical to those included in the U.S. Patriot Act that was pushed through Congress last week. The Canadian legislation also bears an uncanny resemblance to Britain's new anti-terrorism legislation. It appears that all were drafted in Washington, with only cosmetic changes being made to avoid the appearance of collusion.
In both Canada and the United States, prominent jurists have argued that the new legislation is unconstitutional, as well as unnecessary. They have pointed out that law enforcement agencies already have all of the laws and all of the technology necessary to apprehend terrorists. Given the history of these agencies, concerns that they will use these new powers to violate the civil rights of innocent civilians are well-founded.
In the 1950s, gross violations of the right to conscience occurred in the United States, Canada and other countries in the name of "containment of communism". Thousands of people were deprived of a livelihood, imprisoned and even executed because they upheld progressive ideals.
During the 1960s and 1970s in the United States, the FBI, through its Counter-Intelligence Program (COINTELPRO), organized the assassination of dozens of members of the Black Panther Party and the American Indian Movement. Hundreds more were framed for crimes they did not commit. The FBI also provided lists of names of political activists to various Latin American death squads and assisted them to carry out political assassinations in both the United States and Latin America. In the last five decades, tens of millions of Americans have been spied on, harassed and blacklisted by the FBI and CIA for the "crime" of expressing their political opinions.
In Canada, the MacDonald Commission into the Wrongdoings of the RCMP documented hundreds of incidents of illegal activities by the RCMP against political activists and trade unionists. Those activities ranged from illegal wiretaps, to supplying dynamite to FLQ terrorists, to organizing racist attacks against East and West Indian immigrants, to the attempted assassination of a political leader. The authorization for such activities was traced to the Commissioner of the RCMP and the federal Cabinet. The scandal of the RCMP being caught breaking the law led to the creation of the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service (CSIS). But the illegal activities have not ceased. In recent years, CSIS has been found to be illegally tampering with mail and committing other criminal acts. It has been estimated that the Canadian government, through its spy agencies, maintains files on at least 25 percent of Canadians.
To a large extent, therefore, the recent spate of "anti-terrorist" legislation is merely an attempt to legitimize the illegal activities that the security services of the "Western democracies" have always engaged in against their own populations. The state apparatus is being streamlined to enable it to respond with brutal force to any mass opposition movements which may arise as the crisis of capitalism further deepens. It is a tacit admission that under capitalist democracy the much touted "rights and freedoms" exist only to the extent that the state allows and will be withdrawn at the first perception of a threat to capitalism or the state.