 TORONTO — Since it was introduced in 2005, five past prime ministers have signed on to Senator Jerry Grafstein’s bill that would explicitly add suicide bombings to the Criminal Code definition of terrorism.
Senator Jerry Grafstein
Recently, the current prime minister, Stephen Harper, told a supporter of the bill that his government also backs the bill, but with minor modifications.
Reuben Bromstein, president of Canadians Against Suicide Bombing, said he met Harper at a function recently and the prime minister told him the government “would support the bill with amendments.”
Last week, the amended Bill S-205 passed unanimously through the Senate’s constitutional and legal affairs committee after Tory senators added the amendments. It now awaits third reading in the upper chamber. Grafstein said he expects the bill to easily pass third reading and be referred to the House, where MP Bob Rae will take on his role of advocating for it.
“I’m delighted” by passage of the bill, Grafstein said. “This is a gigantic step forward.”
Grafstein said the proposed amendments “in no way hamper or diminish what we are doing.”
One of the amendments would specify that suicide bombings are a terrorist act only if done for terrorist purposes. That would exclude an individual act of murder if not done to pursue a political agenda, Grafstein said.
The other amendment would see the bill come into force when proclaimed by cabinet, as opposed to when it receives royal assent. Grafstein said that this will allow the government to enact the bill as part of a public education campaign.
Grafstein first introduced the bill in 2005, and it received third reading in May 2008. It proceeded to the House of Commons, where it died on the order paper when the chamber was prorogued. Grafstein was forced to reintroduce the bill in the Senate.
With the Tories and Liberals now on board, Grafstein hopes to convince the New Democrats and the Bloc Québécois to lend their support to the bill as well.
“I’m looking for all-party support,” he said.
The bill, once passed, would be a made-in-Canada solution to an act that is plaguing many societies. “We’re trying to say this weapon of choice is not acceptable, since it targets innocent people. The purpose of criminal law is to prevent against conduct that falls below community standards.”
“This is not just a Jewish community issue,” he continued, pointing to support he had received from other ethnic and religious communities.
Bromstein, a former judge of the Ontario Supreme Court, noted that a roster of prominent Canadians support the bill, including former prime ministers Joe Clark, Jean Chrétien, Paul Martin, Kim Campbell and John Turner.
Other supporters include Al-Hassani Haithem, representative of the Canadian-Iraqi Coordination Committee; former NDP leader Ed Broadbent; Tarek Fatah, founder of the Muslim Canadian Congress, and former Ontario premier David Peterson.
In testimony at the Senate, the RCMP and the Canadian Council of Criminal Defence Lawyers also supported the proposed legislation.
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