Liberal leader Stephane Dion surprised many in Ottawa Friday when the liberals announced they would not support Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day's motion to extend two controversial provisions of Canada's Anti-Terrorism Act. The provisions allowed police to hold terrorism suspects without warrants and to force people they believe to have knowledge of terrorist plots to spill the beans behind closed doors. Neither provision has ever been used and both were subject to a five year sunset clause. The five years are up and those two provisions are gone unless the house votes to extend them. The NDP, The Bloc and now the Liberals have said they will vote against the motion. This is great news for many reasons. Firstly it was bad policy. Holding people without arrest warrants and forcing them to testify in secret trials is not how you operate in a free country. Secondly it shows that Stephane Dion is moving the liberals in the right direction. They passed the Draconian Anti-Terrorism Act in the first place and as recently as last October were still behind the aforementioned provisions. Now they will let them die. Thirdly this bodes well for opponents of security certificates. These certificates allow immigrants to be held indefinitely without trial and have been used several times. Some of these men have turned to hunger strikes to bring attention to their lot and its brought attention alright. From Amnesty international. This law is shameful and so is the Anti-Terrorism Act. Perhaps Mr Dion if elected will take more steps to correct them.
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