October 15, 2001

In support of our Anti-Terrorism Plan, our government introduced today in the House of Commons the Anti-Terrorism Act – a strong new legislative package of anti-terrorism measures.

The proposed Anti-Terrorism Act contains measures to:

• identify, prosecute, convict and punish terrorists;
• provide new investigative tools to law enforcement and national security agencies; and,
• ensure that Canadian values of respect and fairness are preserved, and the root causes of hatred are addressed, through stronger laws against hate crimes and propaganda.

This legislative package is in keeping with the actions of our allies. They are an important element in Canada’s commitment to join its international partners in confronting and stamping out terrorism around the world.

The measures to identify, prosecute, convict and punish terrorists that figure in the proposed Anti-Terrorism Act include:

• defining and designating terrorist groups and activities to make it easier to prosecute terrorists and those who support them;
• tougher sentences for terrorism offences;
• making it an offence to knowingly participate in, facilitate or contribute to the activities of a terrorist group;
• making it an offence to instruct anyone to carry out a terrorist activity or an activity on behalf of a terrorist group;
• making it an offence to knowingly harbour a terrorist;
• cutting off financial support for terrorists by making it a crime to knowingly collect or give funds, either directly or indirectly, in order to carry out terrorism;
• making it easier to deny or remove charitable status from terrorist groups under the Income-Tax Act, and making it easier to freeze and seize their assets; and
• ratifying two UN anti-terrorism conventions, the International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism and the International Convention for the Suppression of Terrorist Bombing, as well as the Safety of United Nations and Associated Personnel Convention.

Under the proposed Anti-Terrorism Act, the sentences imposed for each of the terrorism offences would be served consecutively. Also, the offender would be ineligible for parole for half the sentence imposed. These provisions are similar to the approach taken in the Government’s organized crime bill, and reflect the serious nature of these crimes.

To ensure that the courts can deal with an expected increase in enforcement, appeals and reviews connected to the Government’s new Anti-Terrorism Plan, the proposals would allow an increase in the number of Federal Court judge positions by up to 15.

The Government of Canada’s Anti-Terrorism Plan has four objectives:

• stop terrorists from getting into Canada and protect Canadians from terrorist acts;
• bring forward tools to identify, prosecute, convict and punish terrorists;
• prevent the Canada-US border from being held hostage by terrorists and impacting on the Canadian economy; and
• work with the international community to bring terrorists to justice and address the root causes of such hatred.