As someone who lived for about seven years in Israel, where I was exposed to terrorist threats and found myself near wars/conflicts rather frequently, I can honestly say that I believe 100% that Canadians have more to fear from the expansion of the police powers by its legislature than from terrorist threats. I wanted to come to Canada to study abroad because I want to live in peace for a change. I am sick of war. I figured Vancouver could be about the furthest reaches of the world from war, except maybe New Zealand. Anyway, Milton Friedman used to say that its easy to hand authority to a governmental agency, but it is much harder to then remove that authority at a later date. This characterization holds true of government programs and agencies in general. Institutions often try to justify their own existence. It is not specific to policing/security. So, I fear that expanding police powers in Canada will allow for abuses of that expanded power, even long after security threats have been rendered irrelevant. Even if the judiciary eventually will act to uphold rights that almost inevitably will be infringed by expanded police power, in any case there still usually is an interim period in which the government gets away with abuses of power. Meaning, because procedurally it takes so long for the achievement of justice, procedural delays themselves often create substantive injustices for certain innocent victims of policing. Anyway, the best argument the government could make to expand its police power is that it serves the public interest. Perhaps this decision, if ever to be made, should be made directly by the people, since the proposed legislation affects peoples own use of its own private property (which, in any case, should be under provincial jurisdiction). In short, I fear misuse of police powers will result in substantive damage to innocent people. It is unfortunate that Canada suffered its first incidents of terrorism. Even so, I would hate to think that two casualties justifies tapping 35 million people. I remember when I was in high school post-9/11 that police power got far out of hand in the United States. I always assumed that Canada was like this peaceful paradise to the north. I hope Canada can live up to that perception because it has been the selling point for nearly all of the bright U.S. expats who starting to call this place home right around the Vietnam War.
Posted on: Sun, 26 Oct 2014 21:07:16 +0000
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