Fear of a black mask

The federal Conservatives have developed a reflexive tic. They seem to awake in the morning, read something in the news that annoys them, and gather to push through a quick law banning or punishing it.
They discover Clifford Olsen is receiving pension-plan payments, so they ban the practice. They're upset that a Chinese grocer is arrested after chasing off a persistent thief, so they change the law on citizen's arrest. Intent on helping police track down crooks, they introduce a law empowering police to spy on almost anyone for anything - then accuse anyone who criticizes the law as a would be child-pornographer. They find out that some prisoners are earning a pittance in prison from doing menial work, so they slap a tax on it. And they call all of it getting "tough on crime" and "standing up for victims."
As previous experience has illustrated, this often blows up on the Tories, and they have to backtrack. Just this week, Immigration Minister Jason Kenny amended a bill that would have allowed some refugees to be detained for a year without a review by the Immigration and Refugee Board.

Read on....

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