Bill S-7 explained in plain English

Bill S-7 amends federal laws to create new terrorism offences for leaving Canada to commit terrorist-related acts, restructures investigative hearing and recognizance procedures for terrorism investigations, and modifies disclosure rules for sensitive government information.

Bill S-7, the Combating Terrorism Act, received royal assent on April 25, 2013. It makes changes to three federal laws: the Criminal Code, the Canada Evidence Act, and the Security of Information Act. The bill creates four new criminal offences in the Criminal Code related to leaving Canada to commit terrorism-related acts. These offences carry sentences of up to 10 to 14 years in prison, depending on the specific offence. It also increases the maximum prison sentences for harbouring or concealing people who have committed or are likely to commit terrorism offences. The bill replaces sections 83.28 to 83.3 of the Criminal Code with new rules for investigative hearings and recognizance orders. An investigative hearing can now be ordered to gather information for a terrorism investigation. Before holding such a hearing, a peace officer must get permission from the Attorney General of Canada. A judge can order someone to appear and answer questions if there are reasonable grounds to believe a terrorism offence has been committed or will be committed, and reasonable attempts have been made to get the information other ways. Answers given at the hearing cannot be used against the person in most criminal proceedings. The bill also creates a process for imposing recognizance with conditions (a type of court order with rules a person must follow) on individuals to prevent terrorist activity. These terrorism-related provisions (sections 83.28, 83.29, and 83.3) are temporary and will automatically expire 15 sitting days after the fifth anniversary of coming into force unless Parliament extends them by resolution. The bill amends the Canada Evidence Act to allow the Federal Court to decide whether applications about disclosing sensitive government information should be made public. It gives the court power to order private hearings when appropriate, while allowing ex parte representations (arguments made without the other side present) to remain private. The bill also requires the Attorney General of Canada to report annually on the use of certificate and fiat provisions under the Act. The bill amends the Security of Information Act to increase maximum prison sentences for harbouring or concealing people who have committed or are likely to commit offences under that Act—up to 14 years for harbouring someone who committed a life-sentence offence, and up to 10 years in other cases.

A legislative summary is currently being prepared for this bill by the Parliamentary Information and Research Service of the Library of Parliament. Meanwhile, the following executive summary is available. On 15 February 2012, the Leader of the Government in the Senate introduced Bill S-7, An Act to amend the Criminal Code, the Canada Evidence Act and the Security of Information Act (Combating Terrorism Act), in the Senate and it was given first reading. The bill amends the Criminal Code • to provide for an investigative hearing where individuals with information about a terrorism offence that has been or will be committed would be compelled to appear before a judge and answer questions. Numerous safeguards would be attached to this power, including an annual report with opinions by the Attorney General of Canada and the Minister of Public Safety on whether these provisions should be extended; • to provide for the imposition of a recognizance with conditions on a person to prevent them from carrying out a terrorist activity. A peace officer with reasonable grounds to believe that a terrorist activity will be carried out and that the imposition of a recognizance with conditions on a particular person is necessary to prevent a terrorist activity from being carried out, then the peace officer could apply to a judge to have the person compelled to appear before him or her; • to create offences of leaving or attempting to leave Canada to commit certain terrorism offences; and • to provide for those sections to cease to have effect or for the possible extension of their operation. The investigative hearings and recognizance with conditions provisions were subject to a sunset clause. These provisions expired on 1 March 2007. Bill S-7 also amends the Canada Evidence Act to allow the Federal Court to order that applications to it with respect to the disclosure of sensitive or potentially injurious information be made public and to allow it to order that hearings related to those applications be heard in private. In addition, the enactment provides for the annual reporting on the operation of the provisions of that Act that relate to the issuance of certificates and fiats. The bill also amends the Security of Information Act to increase, in certain cases, the maximum penalty for harbouring a person who committed an offence under that Act. Lastly, it makes technical amendments in response to a parliamentary review of these Acts.