Lawfare in Canada: The case of the Harper Government’s systemic policing of Muslims
‘Lawfare’ is a term describing how the law can be used as a weapon of war to pre-emptively punish and prosecute citizens in a hyper-militarized and nationalist context. The term has often been used to describe how fear of Muslims is manufactured in the US through shoddy terrorism cases involving agent provocateurs and the frequent use of entrapment of economically desperate and mentally ill Muslim men with radicalized political inclinations. These findings have been well documented in a recent report entitled “Inventing Terrorists: The Lawfare of Preemptive Prosecution.”
In the Canadian context the term is becoming equally applicable through a slew of recent Bills and proposed legislations by Stephen Harper’s Conservative government. In its majority government tenure, the Conservative Party has legislated Bill-51, a law which broadens the mandate of Canadian security agencies and enhances their powers. Critics of the Bill argue that it gives CSIS broad and sweeping powers with little oversight in the name of national security and combating terrorism. The Tories have also introduced a new Citizenship Act which can strip away Canadian citizenship of dual citizens found guilty of terrorism related offences. The Citizen Act creates a two-tier system, where some can have their Canadian nationality contested and others having their ‘Canadianness’ taken for granted. This law becomes particularly obscure, as terrorist activities, from the perspective of the Conservatives, are seemingly limited to acts committed by Muslims or in the name of Islam.
For example, recently the Canadian Justice Minister, Peter McKay, claimed that an attempted Valentine’s Day shooting spree in February 2015 was clearly not a terrorist activity, because the attempted plotters did not have any "cultural affiliations". Mr. McKay did not specify 'Muslim' cultures. However, he made specific reference to groups like ISIS when discussing how such an action could have been classified as an act of terrorism. In relation to the new Citizenship Act, Immigration Minister Chris Alexander described how it was designed to confront the threat of ‘jihadi terrorism.’ In addition to laws that have already been passed, the senate is currently drawing up plans for an Imam Certification process to monitor and ensure that extremist ideology is not disseminated through Muslim religious institutions.
The Harper government is pandering into murky waters with all these Bills and proposed laws given its fairly open anti-Muslim bias and pro-Israeli political posturing. Many reputable scholars, academics, and human rights organizations have described the Israeli government’s aggression in operations Cast Lead and Protective Edge as manifestations of state-sponsored terrorism. Would material support of the IDF result in one losing their citizenship? Should pro-Israeli religious leaders encouraging members their congregation to join Israeli offensive operations require state policing and a certification process?
The threat of Islamic extremism is an overly exaggerated crisis in Canada that doesn’t warrant the resources, time, and taxpayer funds that have been wasted by the Harper government. There are approximately one million Muslims in Canada. Authorities estimate that up to 130 have been involved in terrorist activities abroad. This represents less than 0.02 percent of the Canadian Muslim population. If public safety and well-being was a genuine concern of the Conservative government, perhaps a more efficient use of resources could be invested on drug and alcohol abuse campaigns, which affect far more Canadian youth than the ‘Islamic jihadi threat.’
In contexts where ‘terrorism’ is defined by the cultural and religious affiliations of the perpetrators, as is becoming the case in Canada, the law can become a tool to discriminate and marginalize certain classes in society. With careless attempts to universalize consensus of the ‘dangerous Muslim threat,’ Harper’s politics of fear have created a state of exceptionalism resulting in Muslims becoming a de facto sub-citizen class. In short, laws that have been proposed and recently passed in Canada are becoming tools to pre-emptively punish Canadian Muslims through lawfare.
‘Lawfare’ is a term describing how the law can be used as a weapon of war to pre-emptively punish and prosecute citizens in a hyper-militarized and nationalist context. The term has often been used to describe how fear of Muslims is manufactured in the US through shoddy terrorism cases involving agent provocateurs and the frequent use of entrapment of economically desperate and mentally ill Muslim men with radicalized political inclinations. These findings have been well documented in a recent report entitled “Inventing Terrorists: The Lawfare of Preemptive Prosecution.”
In the Canadian context the term is becoming equally applicable through a slew of recent Bills and proposed legislations by Stephen Harper’s Conservative government. In its majority government tenure, the Conservative Party has legislated Bill-51, a law which broadens the mandate of Canadian security agencies and enhances their powers. Critics of the Bill argue that it gives CSIS broad and sweeping powers with little oversight in the name of national security and combating terrorism. The Tories have also introduced a new Citizenship Act which can strip away Canadian citizenship of dual citizens found guilty of terrorism related offences. The Citizen Act creates a two-tier system, where some can have their Canadian nationality contested and others having their ‘Canadianness’ taken for granted. This law becomes particularly obscure, as terrorist activities, from the perspective of the Conservatives, are seemingly limited to acts committed by Muslims or in the name of Islam.
For example, recently the Canadian Justice Minister, Peter McKay, claimed that an attempted Valentine’s Day shooting spree in February 2015 was clearly not a terrorist activity, because the attempted plotters did not have any "cultural affiliations". Mr. McKay did not specify 'Muslim' cultures. However, he made specific reference to groups like ISIS when discussing how such an action could have been classified as an act of terrorism. In relation to the new Citizenship Act, Immigration Minister Chris Alexander described how it was designed to confront the threat of ‘jihadi terrorism.’ In addition to laws that have already been passed, the senate is currently drawing up plans for an Imam Certification process to monitor and ensure that extremist ideology is not disseminated through Muslim religious institutions.
The Harper government is pandering into murky waters with all these Bills and proposed laws given its fairly open anti-Muslim bias and pro-Israeli political posturing. Many reputable scholars, academics, and human rights organizations have described the Israeli government’s aggression in operations Cast Lead and Protective Edge as manifestations of state-sponsored terrorism. Would material support of the IDF result in one losing their citizenship? Should pro-Israeli religious leaders encouraging members their congregation to join Israeli offensive operations require state policing and a certification process?
The threat of Islamic extremism is an overly exaggerated crisis in Canada that doesn’t warrant the resources, time, and taxpayer funds that have been wasted by the Harper government. There are approximately one million Muslims in Canada. Authorities estimate that up to 130 have been involved in terrorist activities abroad. This represents less than 0.02 percent of the Canadian Muslim population. If public safety and well-being was a genuine concern of the Conservative government, perhaps a more efficient use of resources could be invested on drug and alcohol abuse campaigns, which affect far more Canadian youth than the ‘Islamic jihadi threat.’
In contexts where ‘terrorism’ is defined by the cultural and religious affiliations of the perpetrators, as is becoming the case in Canada, the law can become a tool to discriminate and marginalize certain classes in society. With careless attempts to universalize consensus of the ‘dangerous Muslim threat,’ Harper’s politics of fear have created a state of exceptionalism resulting in Muslims becoming a de facto sub-citizen class. In short, laws that have been proposed and recently passed in Canada are becoming tools to pre-emptively punish Canadian Muslims through lawfare.
RSS Feed
