[infowar.de] Auch Kanada verschaerft Gesetze

[PatriciaDenno -! - aol - com]

Canada Proposes Extending Electronic Surveillance for Terrorism 

The proposed law would extend the period of validity of a wiretap authorization to up to one year, instead of 60 days when police are investigating a terrorist group offense. A Superior Court judge still would have to approve the use of electronic surveillance to ensure that the powers were used appropriately, the dept. said. The requirement to notify a suspect after surveillance has taken place could be delayed for up to 3 years under the proposal. The dept. said "police and intelligence agencies must have sufficient time to investigate these complex crimes, since terrorist operations can take months or years to plan."....continued...

"The provision would apply to hate propaganda that is located on Canadian computer systems, regardless of where the owner of the material is located or whether he or she can be identified." The proposed law also would amend the Canadian Human Rights Act to extend the prohibition against hate messages beyond phone messages to include all "Internet or other communications tools for hatred purposes or discrimination." The govt. also said it would sign the Council of Europe's cybercrime treaty that requires states to criminalize computer system abuse and hacking. 

"The measures we are introducing strike the right balance between civil liberties and national security and signal our resolve to ensure that Canadians will not be paralysed by acts of terrorism," McLellan said. Opposition parties responded favourably to the bill. Official opposition representative Vic Toews offered his party's full support but criticized the Liberals for rejecting his party's earlier attempts to create the same type of legislation before the Sept.11 attacks in the U.S. But critics said the bill went too far in requiring Canadians to surrender civil rights. New Democratic Party representative Bill Blaikie said his party wanted to be sure that the right to peaceful dissent wasn't removed, or even limited, and would reserve final judgment until it received input from various organizations. Canadian Civil Liberties Assn. head Alan Borovoy said the bill could give police too much power: "The legitimate war on terrorism doesn't require measures as broad as that," he said. Canadian Bar Assn. Pres. Simon Potter issued a similar note of caution, saying that just because police might want the extra rights didn't necessarily mean they should have them: "It may be that people are going too far down the road in wanting to clamp on freedoms which we now take for granted," Potter said