September 11: Consequences for Canada

Abstract

SEPTEMBER 11 Consequences for Canada Kent Roach Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2003. 272pp, $65.00 cloth (ISBN 0-7735-2584-X), $22.95 paper (ISBN 0-7735-2585-8)In the context of the global on terrorism, anomalies abound. Alan Dershowitz is invited by the Canadian government (and paid very handsomely) to give advice on the legitimacy of biometric national identity cards in a liberal democracy after publicly defending the necessity of torture as a tool in the against terror. Michael Ignatieff, a Canadian who is director of the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard and long considered a left-liberal, defends a little evil-lite in the name of defending us and our lesser evil against them. The Canadian government-appointed commission in the Arar case raises questions about the constitutionality of the anti-terrorism act passed and charter-proofed just three years ago.In this context, Kent Roach's serious and sensible book, September 11: Consequences for Canada, is especially important reading. It provides a dispassionate, rigorous, liberal analysis of the legal underpinnings and possible implications of this rapidly metastasizing war for Canada. seeking to assess its implications for Canadian sovereignty, the rule of law, and democracy, Roach rightly emphasizes that an apocalyptic view which stresses that everything has changed since 9/11 lacks nuance. Canada was moving toward the criminalization of politics and securitization well before 9/11, and democracy was hardly without threat from overzealous governments before that date. The tension implicit in Canada's relationship to the US was also clear long before 9/11. Drawing his inspiration from George Grant, Roach recommends the reassertion of Canadian sovereignty against our neighbour, and not just in response to 9/11.September 11: Consequences for Canada is important for making all these arguments and more. The analysis is also significant for detailing, carefully and lucidly if a bit bloodlessly, the threats to democracy, civil liberties, and human rights-not just here but abroad as well-emanating from the ramped-up security agenda with its spreading tentacles and permanent war footing. The book includes a very good analysis of the Suresh case, in which the supreme court of Canada scandalously left open the possibility of deportation to face torture as a reasonable limit to constitutional rights. Roach rightly notes the foreboding quality of this exception.Roach defends the rule of law, human rights, and democracy against the perils of anti-terror legislation and the host of formally legal manoeuvres associated with it. He argues in favour of a more progressive human security agenda. For all these reasons, Roach's book deserves a wide and attentive reading.This era of disappearing immigrants and citizens, ghost prisoners, secret trials, and investigative hearings that may compel testimony has inspired more radical authors to look back to the likes of Carl Schmitt for analysis of a permanent state of exception, as well as pursuing the apparently obverse intuition of reaching toward the rule of law now demanded globally (e.g., Habermas) as a defence against such threats to human rights, popular sovereignty, and the legitimacy of law itself. Precisely because it represents such an attack on the rule of law, both globally and locally, the war on terror seems well-suited to elicit both of these reactions. …