In testimony last month before special House of Commons and Senate committees, CAUT called for the repeal of Canada’s Anti-Terrorism Act.

"Police and security officials already had all the powers they needed to fight terrorism without the draconian Anti-Terrorism Act," said James Turk, executive director of CAUT. "The act is an unprecedented threat to the civil liberties and long-established democratic rights of all Canadians and must be repealed."

CAUT told the committee the act, like other extreme measures, spreads a cancer of secrecy and arbitrary power through society, breaking down the rule of law and putting those that govern above the governed.

"We drew on the expertise of our members in the many areas of law affected by the Anti-Terrorism Act and concluded it was far more of a threat to Canadians than a benefit," Turk said.

"Democratic societies look back in shame at periods when civil rights and democratic standards were sacrificed as a means to other ends," he added. "We have only to remember the McCarthy era, the internment of Japanese in North America during the Second World War, or the days of the Winnipeg general strike to know the crossroads Canadians stand at now."

A copy of CAUT’s submission is available online.