This week the Attorney General of New Zealand introduced new and novel legislation authorizing the imposition of Terrorism Suppression Control Orders on foreign terrorist travellers, returnees, individuals convicted of terrorism in foreign jurisdictions, and those who have been subject to immigration or citizenship consequences for security reasons connected to terrorism.
Read MoreThe conventional wisdom about repatriating and prosecuting foreign fighters is wrong. Amar Amarasingam and Leah West explain why Canada has a moral duty to prosecute our foreign fighters, and why it is a realistic policy that Canada should pursue.
Read MoreLast week Canada added five new groups to Canada’s terrorist entities list, but the big news was that two of these groups were far right terrorist groups. Why is this a big deal? Leah West walks through the implications of terrorist entity listing under Canada’s criminal law.
Read MoreFriday, the government tabled the CSIS Public Report in the House, on the last day of this Parliament. This is the formerly annual report the Service releases which provides a small window into how they see the threat environment. There is also often a small section on how a particular section of the Service operates – this year there is a very small section on the Intelligence Cycle and the “going dark” problem for example. However, for the purpose of this blog, I’m going to mainly stick to the threat environment discussion.
Read MoreBill C-59, the National Security Act 2017, is now back before the Commons to consider the (relatively minor) amendments proposed by the Senate. Baring a catastrophe, it should make it past this final Commons-Senate ping-pong and become law. “Becoming law” means “coming into force”. There are rules about coming into force, and I review how they apply to C-59 because: it’s complicated.
Read MoreLast week, Leah West addressed delegates at the 6th Open Government Partnership Global Summit hosted by Canada in Ottawa. She was asked to participate on a panel hosted by Public Safety Canada entitled: National Security Transparency: Expert Perspectives along with Wesley Wark, Christopher Parsons and Veronica Kitchen. The following is a copy of Leah’s remarks on the subject of “secret law.”
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