Good Essay On The Anti-Terrorism Act Invades The Right To Privacy

Terrorism is a violent act that is presumed to be done with the sole aim of causing terror and fear among the innocent citizens. Canada realized the increased level of terrorism and in response to this; the Canadian government formulated the anti-terrorism Act. The Act was passed as a result of the response to the 2001 attacks in the United States, specifically in September 11th. This act was established in order to extend the government powers to respond to the terrorism threats. In addition, the Act implied secret trials and detention by the Canadian security and surveillance teams and this has indeed been met with controversies all over as a result of its interference with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Of recent, the Anti-terrorism Act has resulted in threatening of the privacy rights of individuals as The Star reports (thestar.com).
According to The star news, the Federal Privacy commissioner has questioned the Canadian government by asking “Just how far must the Canadians be pushed to give up cherished privacy rights to help the authorities fight terror?” This is in consideration to the Anti-terrorism Act in 2015 and this issue has forced the parliament to review Bill C-51. The Act has indeed cut through the privacy of the citizens of Canada and in turn resulting in a huge public concern. According to the Bill, the authorities in Canadian Security intelligence community are together with other several forces of authorities in the federal government an excessive and limitless power to distribute large amounts of personal information of the citizens of Canada. The safeguards that have been set to ensure the security of data are not sufficient and data loss is imminent. In addition, the storage of the data is not safe against unauthorized personnel.
Therrien claimed that “The potential to know virtually everything about everyone may well identify new threats, the loss of privacy is clearly excessive.” This is indeed true as all the Canadians within the system will be caught in this web. The loss of the private data is a probable result of the piling of this information of the densely populated Canada. Therrien is required to tighten the rules of the CSIS in order to limit the loss of data and unauthorized access to this data. In addition, the rules will be tightened in order for the authorities and the intelligence community to acquire only the necessary details and information from the pile up. The overbroad definitions of the threats regarding terrorism is indeed tightened and this will automatically attract terrorism as more private data regarding the citizens will be excavated and so hampering of the privacy rights even more.
The article by the star is heavily related to the topic of privacy and in this case the privacy rights are being violated at a great extent. The CSIS in Canada that is responsible for the searching and elimination of threats is violating the rights even though it is the fastest way to detect the trends in the terrorism. The enforcement of the anti-terrorism act is a good way of defusing the terrorism in Canada but it is really affecting the rights of the Canadian citizens. The rules that govern these rights might be absolute because they are coming from the government but in the end the government is charged with the protecting and upholding the rights and freedoms of the citizens within the state. Thus the government is really failing in its overall duty as the guardian of the human beings.
With regards to the privacy rights of the people, everyone is weary of the possible manipulations by those who access those pieces of information. The businesses therefore might be at their peril considering that the personnel is not at peace with all their private information on air with the government. The state government should therefore find a way to restore the individual private rights or to ensure the people of Canada that their information regarding their private life is in safe hands indeed from the stalkers and hackers online. This is because the private information includes banking details that when accessed by the hackers might be devastating for the citizen. Therefore, the intelligence community is trying to save lives by eliminating the terrorists but in real sense, they are exposing the individual citizen to even more harm than good.
The businesses should try and urge the intelligence community to stop what they are doing for this method they have employed in accordance with the anti-terrorism act is really affecting the normal pattern of lives the Canadians were used to. In addition, the businesses ought to urge the state government to have a contingency plan in case the information is compromised by a foreign unauthorized source with criminal intent. This includes the containing of the situation very fast and avoid further access to the information. In addition, just as Therrien stipulated that the CSIS needs to tighten the access to the data so that very few with permission can access this information. In a nutshell, the state government is in a bright spotlight on how to address this issue regarding the human right to privacy for the Canadian government.

References

(2015, March 8). “Anti-Terrorism Act threatens privacy rights: Editorial.” Thestar.com. Retrieved from http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorials/2015/03/08/anti-terrorism-act-threatens-privacy-rights-editorial.html