Counciling judges to be complicit

Why are we asking judges to break the law in secret?

An independent judiciary — one able to check government abuses of power — is the bedrock of Canada’s legal system. But what happens when the government tries to force judges to become accomplices to illegal acts done in darkness, in the name of national security?

It appears we’re about to find out. On March 12, Ron Atkey — the former head of SIRC, CSIS’s civilian review body — warned the Parliamentary committee studying Bill C-51 that this sweeping security bill is a “constitutional mess” that almost certainly would be struck down by the courts.
Problems with the bill are many, although the one Atkey was talking about — one that has received very little attention from politicians and the media — is in the section that would authorize CSIS agents to apply for judicial warrants that could contravene charter rights.

This section would amount to one of the most serious attempts by any Canadian government to compromise the independence of the judiciary by forcing them to be silent partners to unlawful acts. Under C-51, CSIS could apply for permission to break the law — short of causing bodily harm or undermining sexual integrity — in order to disrupt threats to the nation’s security. Court hearings for such “disrupt warrants” would be conducted in secret, with no judicial oversight or review to prevent abuses.

These judicial warrants would depart profoundly from the normal warrants for wiretaps and searches that are being used as C-51’s precedents. Such warrants are supposed to conform to charter standards — not undermine them.

READ MORE: http://www.ipolitics.ca/2015/03/23/c-51-why-are-we-asking-judges-to-break-the-law-in-secret/