C-51 National Security Analysis

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On June 18th, 2015, the Parliament of Canada had received Royal Accent on their first bill addressing the national concern of terrorism; Bill C-51, Anti-Terrorism Act. This bill was drafted as a result of rising concerns, specifically after the events of September 11, 2001, of terrorism. Canada, understanding the legitimacy of this threat acted upon it, producing legislation with the intent to enhance the authority of government agencies. This enhancement was done so through authorising government agencies such as the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), to engage in the collection of personal data, in as effort to investigate and weed out those who may have involved themselves in terrorist activities; however, since its release, …show more content…
The rules were as simple as, collect bulk data; data which is collected at random and in no particular order, which may contain various forms of information about several individuals, and send the collected information back and forth between agencies, and between all nations associated with the Five Eyes for long term storage. For example, without needing appropriate justification, CSIS could intercept an individuals communications, banking history, and online activity, and send this information off to several location through unsecure methods. From the perspective of government security officials, this is viewed as a beneficial component of C-51 to the security of Canada. Having ownership of terabytes of bulk data from several Canadian individuals makes it easy for intelligence officers to form the profile, a form of identification which includes personal and contact information, of a potential suspect. In theory, a name, a house address, or a phone number, becomes enough to identify an individual's location, identity, family, and connections outside the country, based on the bulk data collected; however, not only is their personal information being sent around without consent, but individuals are unaware of who exactly is receiving the information, individuals are unaware if their personal information is at all being intercepted by foreign entities due to the unsecure methods of transferring this information, and simply disapprove this practice of unconsented personal data collection. Bill C-59 was created promising reforms of the various concerns of the initial National Security Bill C-51, in regards to information sharing; however, the reforms of Bill C-59 do little to suppress the amount of information flowing through government agencies - and little to secure means