Liberals to support anti-terrorism bill

Libreal Leader Justin Trudeau asksa question during question period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2015. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

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By Joan Bryden, The Canadian Press

OTTAWA - Justin Trudeau's Liberals will vote in favour of the government's new anti-terrorism bill, despite concerns that it provides no mechanisms to guard against abuse of the new powers it would give security agencies.

If the Conservative government refuses to amend the bill to address those concerns, Trudeau says Liberals will still support it but will fix the flaws should they win the coming election.

"The current government can accept that Canadians want greater oversight and accountability, or it will give us the opportunity to offer that directly to Canadians in the upcoming election campaign," the Liberal leader said Wednesday.

Liberals want the bill amended to provide for parliamentary oversight of security agencies and a mechanism to require mandatory review of the legislation in the years to come.

The bill would give the Canadian Security Intelligence Service more power to thwart suspected terrorists' travel plans, disrupt bank transactions and covertly interfere with radical websites.

It would also make it easier for the RCMP to obtain a peace bond to restrict the movements of suspects and extend the amount of time they can be kept in preventative arrest and detention.

And it would create a new criminal offence: encouraging someone to carry out a terrorist attack.

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Liberals to support anti-terrorism bill

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