Incorporating Modifications To The Canadian Anti-Terrorism Act
...that people remember is the one that gets past you” (“Quotes on Terrorism”, par. 2). This quote signifies the increasing importance policy makers must place on developing strategic legal principles to combat terrorism. Terrorism, which can be defined as tactics “specifically designed to have far-reaching psychological effects beyond the immediate victim(s) or object of the terrorist attacks on a continuing basis to instill fear within, and thereby intimidate a wider target audience,” (Cragin and Gerwehr 5) has gained attention on an international scale. National leaders continue to face threats from various terrorist groups who have become potent stimulus to public disorder within their respective countries. Canada is amongst these nations who exerts substantial significance on national security. The Government of Canada’s decision to sign all “12 United Nations Conventions and Protocols related to terrorism” (“Highlights of Anti-Terrorism Act”, par. 3) and the release of the Canadian Anti-Terrorism Act in 2001 explicitly demonstrates the Canadian Government’s purpose of embedding terrorism into its framework of criminal law is to achieve its goal of public order. “National legal systems allocate different responsibilities to criminal and civil law, but common to all legal systems is a set of fundamental sanctioning goals for the protection, restoration, and improvement of public order” (Lattimer 421). This excerpt stresses the fact that the government’s ultimate goal is to achieve public order through the elimination of terrorism.
The Government of Canada has passed the Canadian Anti-Terrorism Act to minimize terrorist activities in Canada, however the Act’s inherent flaws and the public’s misinterpretation of the legal principles laid out by the Anti-Terrorism Act prevent the government from completely attaining their instigated objectives of upholding public...
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