OTTAWA - The Conservative government is moving to restore extraordinary police and judicial powers dropped from the federal Anti-Terrorism Act two years ago.
Justice Minister Rob Nicholson gave parliamentary notice late Tuesday that he will bring in legislation to renew police powers of preventive arrest in cases where a terrorist act is perceived to be imminent.
The bill, which could be introduced in the Commons as early as Thursday, is also expected to reinstate investigative hearings in which people believed to have knowledge of terrorist activity can be compelled to testify before a judge.
The provisions were part of the anti-terror legislation rushed through Parliament in late 2001 in the wake of the 9-11 attacks in the United States.
But both the arrest and hearing provisions lapsed under a five-year sunset clause on March 1, 2007, after the Liberal opposition refused to vote for their continuance.
The dispute was marked by bitter exchanges on the floor of the Commons, with Prime Minister Stephen Harper accusing the Grits, then led by Stephane Dion, of being soft on terrorism.
Seven months later, however, the Tories agreed to a handful of changes designed to safeguard civil liberties and win over the Liberals. Among other things, a new version of the bill tightened procedural requirements for investigative hearings and provided for ongoing monitoring and reporting by the government.
In an unusual move, the modified bill was introduced in the Senate and went on to win approval from the Liberal-dominated upper house in March 2008. But it took a back seat to other legislative priorities in the Commons and failed to become law before the last election was called.
Mark Holland, the Liberal public safety critic, berated the Tories earlier this week for letting the bill languish and being slow to reintroduce it once the election was out of the way.,
"It shows that this was all politics," said Holland. "They tried to use fear to drive a wedge and create a political issue."
Nevertheless, he said, the legislation will likely win Liberal support if the Conservatives stick to the same kind of language and drafting that marked the last bill.
NDP justice critic Joe Comartin, whose party vociferously opposed extension of the special powers in 2007, said the two-year lapse has done nothing to change his mind.
"It confirms that we never needed it in the first place," said Comartin.
The Justice Department says the police power of preventive arrest -- or "recognizance with conditions" as federal lawyers prefer to call it -- was never used between passage of the law in December 2001 and March 2007.
The only known use of an investigative hearing was when the RCMP tried to compel testimony from a reluctant witness in its continuing investigation of the 1985 Air India bombing that took 329 lives.
