Anti-Terror Bill Greenlights Intel Obtained By Torture, Says Green Party Leader

Stephen Harper's wide-ranging new anti-terrorism legislation will let the Canadian Government detain and deport people based on information obtained by ostensibly hooking up someone's genitals to a car battery, says Elizabeth May.

C-51, or the Anti-Terrorism Act 2015, is omnibus legislation that, among other things, expands information sharing, gives police more power to preventively detain terror suspects, infiltrate threats to Canada (or its economy) and, it seems to the Green Party leader, use tainted intel.

May is pointing to a section of the legislation that she says throws out all of Canada's well-established rules that prevent police from using illegally-obtained information.

"For years now, I have been worried about whether CSIS uses evidence obtained through torture in security certificate cases," May said in a news release.

She has right to worry. The federal government has already confirmed that it will use any actionable intelligence, even if it was obtained from holding an illegally-detained person's head underwater for long periods of time.

Security certificates are the mechanism that the federal government can use to detain and deport foreign nations deemed to be a security threat to Canada. The process has been around since the early 1990s, and it has been applied to dozens of individuals—some have been deported back to countries where they almost certainly face torture.

May is pointing to clause 54 of the legislation: language in that section states that the government can introduce just about any intelligence they have in their possession relevant to kicking the person out of the country. Currently, the law says that the government must provide evidence pertaining to the certificate itself—May, and University of Victoria law professor Donald Galloway, both say that change means law enforcement agencies like CSIS can withhold critical information about where the intelligence was obtained and through what means, like holding frequent mock executions of prisoners.

"Bill C-51 modifies the processes of removing people from Canada by permitting the minister to withhold evidence relating to the credibility of its source, including evidence that information was obtained by torture," Galloway says in the release.

"I am extremely troubled by the possibility that this subtle change in wording could let CSIS introduce evidence obtained through torture," May adds. "Almost by sleight-of-hand, this removes the burden of the minister to give complete context about the reliability of the source and instead only requires the minister to give the information relevant to the ground of inadmissibility."

And that is not the only section that opens the door to illegally-obtained intelligence. When it comes to putting Canadians or non-citizens on the no-fly list, "the judge may receive into evidence anything that, in the judge's opinion, is reliable and appropriate, even if it is inadmissible in a court of law, and may base a decision on that evidence," the law reads.

Add on top of all that new powers listed in C-44 (the other spying bill) which allow CSIS to keep their sources confidential, and there are lots of new ways that Canada's spies can use information obtained by tactics that included forcing prisoners to play Russian roulette and keeping them awake for days at a time.

Using information garnered by, say waterboarding, wouldn't be entirely without precedent. Former Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day previously told a Vancouver court that he believes intelligence used in one security certificate case was obtained via torture.

C-51 also wildly expands the ability of government agencies to share information with each other, meaning that once shady intel reaches one desk, it can spread very quickly through other departments.

The fight over C-51 is ongoing.

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