Canadian Intel Agency to Get Expanded Anti-Terror Powers

Local Editor

As an effort to limit terror attacks in Canada, Canada's main intelligence agency would be given more powers to target potential terror attacks.

According to the largest local network CBC, the new security legislation, which had already gained a dubious public response, was to be revealed on Friday.

CBC reported that the Canadian Security Intelligence Service [CSIS] , a civilian agency, would be given powers to act on its own to prevent potential attacks, as currently it only gathers information, analyzes it and then passes to police for action.

The legislation was expected to lift current restrictions of the activities of CSIS. The law would criminalize the promotion of terrorism; ease tracking and monitoring suspects, alongside the right to prevent extremist suspects from boarding planes and to intercept shipments of equipment and material that could be used in an attack.

Based on the Globe and Mail newspaper, the legislation would also authorize CSIS to share private information and block financial transactions.
However, CSIS would need to get a judicial warrant first. The power to arrest or detain people would reside with the police.

An unnamed source told CBC News, "The goal is for CSIS to move from an intelligence-gathering service to an agency that will have the power to disrupt or diminish potential terrorist threats under appropriate judicial oversight".

Prime Minister Stephen Harper commented that it is difficult to predict the evolving multiple threats facing Canada. He added, "But we must continually evolve and improve our tools to do everything we can in what are obviously dangerous situations for the Canadian public, situations that we are seeing more and more frequently all over the world".

Though, experts, including constitutional lawyers, have pointed out that security agencies "already have wide-ranging powers at their disposal" and that Canada's 2013 Anti-Terrorism Act was quite "sufficient".

The government introduced a new anti-terrorism bill, after a "lone wolf" attack of the parliament by a Canadian citizen, who killed a soldier. It followed another fatal attack of a Canadian convert.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team