Common Dreams: We are making sure your voice is heard before it is too late to #StopC51

We are speaking out as much as we can to make sure your voice is heard: Bill C-51 will recklessly endanger our rights and our privacy. Here's another great coverage thanks to your support. Keep speaking up at StopC51.ca before it is too late.  Article by Nadia Prupis for Common Dreams Canada's House of Commons on Tuesday is poised to pass Bill C-51, a so-called "anti-terror" law, despite widespread outcry from civil liberties advocates who say the legislation would allow law enforcement to spy on civilians and violate Canadians' constitutional rights with little or no accountability.

The bill, introduced by the Conservative Party and backed by Prime Minister Stephen Harper, would give up to 17 government agencies access to Canadian citizens' private information, including their financial status, medical history, and religious and political beliefs. The Canadian Security Intelligence Service would also be authorized to spy on Canadians and foreign nationals living in the country, while the Royal Canadian Mounted Police would be granted increased power to make preventive arrests.

Opponents of the bill have rallied for months under the banners #StopC51 and #RejectFear. According to digital policy advocacy group OpenMedia, the bill "disproportionately targets Indigenous communities, environmental activists, dissidents, and Muslims, many of whom are already subjected to questionable and overreaching powers by security officials, [and] will make it easier and ostensibly lawful for government to continue infringing upon the rights of peaceful people."

OpenMedia communications director David Christopher wrote in an op-ed for Rabblepublished Monday, "This government has left Canadians with a stark privacy deficit, and we'll all need to work together to address it. We need a co-ordinated plan to roll back mass surveillance, and restore our traditional privacy and democratic rights."

- Read more at Creative Dreams