“CSIS may come to judges asking them to bless in advance constitutional breaches. The proceeding will be secret. Only the government will be represented. There is no appeal mechanism. The person affected will not know about it. They may never know who caused the problems that they then would encounter… We just have never seen anything like this in Canada before.”
– Craig Forcese, University of Ottawa Law Professor

“The language of C-51 is so broad, it will almost certainly cast a chill over members of [the Muslim] community, many of whom have fled authoritarian regimes where people are often punished for their opinions. Rather than risk being accused of extremism, individuals will stay quiet. And more distressing, rather than debating opposing views and risk being associated with tainted individuals, those who could be on the vanguard of de-radicalization will be scared into silence.”
– Ihsaan Gardee, Executive Director of the National Council of Canadian Muslims

“It’s about creating a secret police. It’s the death of freedom.”
– Elizabeth May, Green Party leader

“I think Bill C-51 represents how desperate this government is. The extremes they’ll go to, to deal with the incredible resurgence and energy of Indigenous movements in this country. I’m not afraid of it. Absolutely not.”
– Clayton Thomas-Muller, Co-Director of the Indigenous Tar Sands Campaign

“When I first heard about this, I was like, wow, on one hand we are the victims of ISIS, and on the other hand we are the victims of the politicians in the West.”
– Mustafa Mustaan, former advisor to the Canadian Forces in Afghanistan

“Some of these tactics are taken right out of the fascist playbook.”
– Francois Lavigne, former CSIS officer

“The problem with this bill is very simple. It lumps legitimate dissent together with terrorism. Indigenous peoples have a right to seek environmental and social justice through protest, communications and activism. This bill would call that work criminal. It would call that work terrorism.”
– Niki Ashton, NDP Aboriginal Affairs Critic

“While the potential to know virtually everything about everyone may well identify some new threats, the loss of privacy is clearly excessive… All Canadians would be caught in this web.”
– Daniel Therrien, Canadian Privacy Commissioner

On March 14, people will gather together in communities across Canada to speak out against Stephen Harper’s reckless “secret police” Bill C-51.

Experts have pointed out that, if passed, the bill will:

• Create a secret police force with little oversight or accountability.
• Facilitate government spying and information sharing on innocent Canadians.
• Open the door for a variety of violations of our Charter Rights.

Despite the severity of this secret police plan, the government is trying to ram bill C-51 through parliament in record time.

This bill disproportionately targets indigenous communities, environmental activists, dissidents, and Muslims, many of whom are already subjected to questionable and overreaching powers by security officials. The bill will also make it easier, and ostensibly lawful, for government to continue infringing upon the rights of ordinary citizens.

This legislation is reckless, dangerous, and ineffective. It must be stopped.

Stop Bill C-51!

National Day of Action
Saturday, March 14
Toronto rally: 12 noon @ Nathan Philips Square

City-specific event pages:
Halifax
Montreal
Ottawa
Toronto
Calgary
Vancouver
More cities…

Website: http://www.stopc51.ca
Facebook: https://facebook.com/stopbillc51

Petitions:
Avaaz
LeadNow
Green Party of Canada

Donate:
LeadNow
Toronto Day of Action Committee

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