(Published in 24 Hours May 9, 2012)
Proposed mask bill not covering enough
By
Leo Knight
It’s heartening for most Canadians to see the federal government come out in support of private members’ BILL C-309, introduced by Alberta Conservative MP Blake Richards in February. I say that because in our democracy it’s very difficult for the average backbencher of any party to get a private members’ bill through Parliament and into law.
Bill C-309, as written, is designed to make it a crime to wear a mask or disguise during a riot or unlawful assembly. The bill is in second reading and will go before committee for further study. But for all intents and purposes, given this week’s support announcement by Justice Minister Rob Nicholson, it will become law.
Now, having said that, there has been some criticism of the initiative saying that existing sections of the Criminal Code already cover the wearing of a disguise during the commission of an indictable offence. True, section 351 does cover that. The problem for police, however, has been getting that charge laid in relation to a public disorder event. Or, if actually laid, it is often the first bargaining chip in a plea bargain deal.
Richards’ bill seeks to take the ambiguity out and force the system to deal with what has become an all too frequent issue.
As we have seen with the emergence of the so-called Black Bloc in the 1999 riots in Seattle, the idiot anarchists bent on raising hell mask up prior to ramping up a protest into a full-fledged attack on society.
We saw this tactic at the Stanley Cup riot in June, many of the Occupy events and most recently in the ridiculous protests in Quebec in the so-called ‘strike’ by students. How students strike when a strike is defined as a withdrawal of service is beyond me. You don’t want to go to school and waste your life. Fine, it’s your life, but a strike? Hardly. But I digress.
The problem with the bill, in my view, is that it needs to go one step further and make the wearing of a disguise during any protest a crime. The bill, as it is written, says the crime occurs once the assembly has become unlawful or a riot. But by then, the damage has been done, so to speak.
It is difficult enough for police to investigate the aftermath of a riot and identify agitators and participants as evidenced by the Herculean effort being undertaken by the Vancouver Police Department in the Stanley Cup riot.
It long past time to start holding these leeches to account. Taking a primary tool from them only makes sense.