The federal government and Antiterrorism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

The federal government and Antiterrorism - Essay Example However, the Canadian law has been experiencing difficulties in defining terrorism due to various impediments/factors. Among those impediments include; political factors which fail to define well the beginning and the end of terrorism acts. Secondly, government’s attempt to have a broad definition of terrorism has made the term to become so ambiguous and controversial as it tends to include non terrorism acts (The Government of Canada Ministry of Justice, 2013). The Canadian federal government established Antiterrorism Act, a legal framework that was aimed at establishing measures to deal with terrorism activities. The framework consists of the following elements; penal law for terrorism acts, listing of terrorism groups/entities, definition of terrorism acts/offences, investigation of terrorism acts, recognition of terrorism condition/acts, establishment of tools and equipments for detecting terrorism activities such as surveillance, identification of hate/prejudice crimes, i dentification of ways of terrorism financing, amendment of information security act and finally establishment of various amendments of security intelligence act (The Government of Canada Ministry of Justice, 2013). ... Some of the acts that were amended include; the act of criminal code, official secret Act, the Canadian evidence Act, money laundry Act to mention just but a few. The Anti Terrorism Amendment Act led to the establishment of the major elements of the Canadian government plan. The main objectives of the Canadian Anti-terrorism plan include: securing Canadian territorial boarder against antiterrorist attacks, to collaborate with international community in arresting and prosecuting terrorist, prevent the acts of terrorism in Canada as well as establishing tools for convicting and punishing terrorists (Rollings-Magnusson, 2009). The above mention act may be discussed as follows: The act of criminal code act The criminal code act was the first one to be amended under part one of the Canadian federal government Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA).The act was amended to define terrorism in two major ways. The first definition states that terrorism as acts of omission that are committed inside or outsid e Canada that amounts to a criminal offence as defined by the international agreements in respect to the acts of terrorism such as bombing and hijacking. The second definition under the first part of ATA, defines terrorism as acts that are undertaken inside or outside Canada for the purpose of fulfilling individual ideological, religious and political purpose with an aim of threatening public economic peace/security. In addition, other amendments that were made under the Canadian criminal code include but not limited to the definition of terrorist groups, terrorism offences, investigation of terrorism acts, recognition of terrorism acts, establishment of tools and equipments for detecting terrorism activities to mention just but a few