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Canada introduces anti-terrorism law

Canada's Conservative government introduced a bill on Tuesday to reinstate two controversial elements of its anti-terrorism law that would give police the power to make preventive arrests of anyone suspected of planning a terrorist attack.

The Anti-terrorism Act includes proposed new safeguards in response to criticism that the measures enacted after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the US were too far-reaching.

The wide-ranging act allows the government to impose stiff penalties on individuals or organizations it deems are related to terrorist activity.

The original provisions expired on March 1.

The act would require people with information relevant to the investigation of a past or future terrorist act to appear before a judge.

It mandates that police, when applying for an investigative hearing into a past terrorism offense, must convince a judge that reasonable attempts have been made to obtain the information by other means.

The act also requires the federal attorney general to periodically provide an opinion, supported by reasons, as to whether the power should be maintained.

Justice Minister Rob Nicholson defended the option of allowing police to look into a past terrorist act despite a contrary recommendation from the Parliamentary committee that studied the anti-terror law.

"I think the legislation's very clear that these are tools of last resort and that the police have to now completely demonstrate in every instance to a judge that they have exercised all the options," Nicholson said on Tuesday.
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