Quebec "anti-war" letters a breach of the criminal code?

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I had heard that some Quebec activists opposed to the Canadian Forces deployment in Afghanistan had been writing letters to soldiers near CFB Valcartier to dissuade them from following their orders to deploy.  What I didn't know until today was that to do this is a breach of Section 62 of the Criminal Code which is an offense with a tariff of up to five years imprisonment on indictment (or 14 years if charged as Sedition under section 61 or Incitement to Mutiny under section 53) - although I doubt any convictions here would attract more than trivial punishment since combat is not occurring on Canadian soil, in the unlikely event that prosecutions were even brought.

Comments

jmnlman said…
Now if Steve had a declaration of war this would be treason but since he doesn't maybe they will get a fine.
Fri Jun 15, 02:34:00 am GMT-4
Mark Dowling said…
They used to be harder on treason in the old days.
Fri Jun 15, 09:05:00 am GMT-4
cearta said…
If there were any convictions, would they surive a challenge based on freedom of expression protected by the Charter?
Sun Jun 17, 03:48:00 pm GMT-4
Mark Dowling said…
good question. I am not a laywer, however, the Charter doesn't preclude convictions for stuff like hate speech - freedom of expression in a national security context is likely to fall under such an "shouting fire in a crowded theatre" exemption.

At the end of the day, we live in a world where the army is at the direction of politicians. They don't stay in Afstan if the Min of Def tells them leave.

Fortunately it looks like Steve won't have the votes to extend the commitment beyond 2009, not least because the Forces will be in need of a break by then to prepare for future deployments - the Afghanistan mission has exposed several resource deficiencies in equipment and in the training system to enable an increase in manning strength. The Opposition won't play along next time because they will be ready for an election when they weren't at the last vote.
Sun Jun 17, 04:32:00 pm GMT-4
Mark Dowling said…
(that should have read "we live in a country where the army is at the direction of politicians.")
Sun Jun 17, 04:33:00 pm GMT-4
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