By Kimball Cariou

Long before the shock of Sept. 11, the Chretien government was fine-tuning Bill C-16, the "Charities Registration (Security Information) Act." The proposed law will strip Canadian charities of their tax-free status if they engage in fundraising for unspecified "terrorist" groups.

Many ethnic organizations and civil liberties groups objected when C-16 was introduced last spring. Currently before the parliamentary Finance Committee, the bill is set to return to the Commons soon as part of the wider "national security" crackdown.

Solicitor General Lawrence MacAulay claims the legislation is needed to bring Canada into line with the 1996 Ministerial Conference of the G-8, which called for "appropriate domestic measures [to counteract] the financing of terrorists and terrorist organizations, whether such financing is direct or indirect through organizations which also have, or claim to have charitable, social or cultural goals."

Under the bill, punitive action will be taken against any registered charity which makes available any resources "directly or indirectly" to any organization or person engaged in terrorism or activities in support of terrorism. Action can also be taken if, in the opinion of the government (and especially CSIS), a registered charity is contemplating future fundraising for organizations abroad which, in turn may, in the future, engage in terrorism or activities in support of terrorism!

These provisions will deepen the post-9/11 atmosphere of paranoia, steering charities away from projects which could be deemed even remotely oppositional to governments in other countries. If this law had been in place during the 1980s, Canadian charities could have been punished for supporting organizations and projects in South Africa which were sympathetic to the struggle against apartheid.

The bill's vague definition of "terrorism" gives the government a free hand to single out organizations, without public scrutiny. Charities connected to projects in the Muslim world are expected to be the first targets, with many others to follow.

Equally disturbing is the scuttling of legal "due process". According to the Act, if the government charges a charity, the case is brought before a federal judge in closed court. The specifics of the charges are then presented to the judge in chambers by ministry officials and CSIS agents, while the legal counsel of the accused charity is barred from being present. If the judge is convinced in this closed session that the charity has violated the Act, a verdict will be issued, with no opportunity for the charity's legal defence to examine the evidence, or cross-examine any witnesses.

This ruling is final, with no possibility of appeal to a higher court. If the ruling goes against the charity, it is automatically stripped of its tax-free status, and the decision is made public, branding that charity as a sponsor of "international terrorism."

Arthur Drache of the Canadian Bar Association condemned C-16 as "legislation that does away with all the normal evidentiary standards if we go to court. We don't get to examine witnesses; we get summaries of what a witness says. We may not know who the witness is. Absolutely none of the rights given to Canadians generally are given to charities in this particular situation. We find it really quite appalling. People are telling me that they simply cannot believe a country like Canada could come up with a piece of legislation that is so anti-democratic, so contrary to the principles of law in Commonwealth jurisdictions. They simply cannot believe it."

Supporters of civil rights and democracy should contact members of Parliament immediately to demand that C-16 be withdrawn immediately.