What's changed in five years? (Globe and Mail / Canada)

[struggle4progress]

With the shock of 9/11 faded, anti-terrorism measures stir skepticism

JEFF SALLOT

From Wednesday's Globe and Mail

OTTAWA — Four days after the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, hundreds of thousands of shocked Canadians gathered on Parliament Hill and in other civic plazas across the country for solemn memorial ceremonies in an emotional display of solidarity with the United States ...

Last night, a majority of MPs in the House signalled that they think those fears can no longer justify giving police and the courts extraordinary powers to arrest people and force them to testify in suspected terrorism cases.

Liberals joined with the New Democrats and the Bloc Québécois in a vote that allowed those special powers to lapse. The minority Conservative government failed in its effort to renew the controversial powers that were first enacted in 2001 for a five-year test period ...

As it turns out, the powers were never invoked in the past five years. The RCMP report they have quietly disrupted several terrorism plots in that time without ever arresting anyone ...

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070228.wxthreat28/BNStory/Front

[applegrove]

1. Thank you Thank you. There may have been a time for such powers..

in the months after the al Qaeda attacks..but thankfully no more. Our crime laws cover what the police need in terms of tools. Thanks to the NDP, Block & Liberals.