NDP standing up for rights and freedoms

Today NDP Public Safety Critic Randall Garrison (Esquimalt—Juan de Fuca) tabled the following amendments in the House of Commons:

That the motion be amended by deleting all the words after the word “That” and substituting the following:

this House decline to give second reading to Bill C-51, An Act to enact the Security of Canada Information Sharing Act and the Secure Air Travel Act, to amend the Criminal Code, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service Act and the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act and to make related and consequential amendments to other Acts, because it:

a) threatens our way of life by asking Canadians to choose between their security and their freedoms; b) was not developed in consultation with other parties, all of whom recognize the real threat of terrorism and support effective, concrete measures to keep Canadians safe; c) irresponsibly provides CSIS with a sweeping new mandate without equally increasing oversight; d) contains definitions that are broad, vague and threaten to lump legitimate dissent together with terrorism; and e) does not include the type of concrete, effective measures that have been proven to work, such as working with communities ‎on measures to counter radicalization of youth.

Tom Mulcair is a principled leader that stands for our rights and freedoms. He will never be intimidated into handing Stephen Harper a blank cheque in Parliament. We’ll always defend our principles and Canadians can count on us to hold this government to account and defend their rights.