Translation of "Surveillance instituée par une loi spéciale " (French → English) :

C. whereas the Russian law on ‘foreign agents’, adopted in July 2012, requires NGOs that receive foreign funding and are engaged in ‘political activity’ to apply for inclusion in a special government list of foreign agents, meaning that they are then subjected to additional close scrutiny by the government, and requires all their publications, press releases and reports to state that they have been produced by a foreign agent; whereas the law was amended in May 2014 to allow the Ministry of Justice itself to register such NGOs as ‘foreign agents’;

101. Calls on the FRA to conduct a study, in collaboration with the UN Special Rapporteur concerned, on special laws and procedures justified on grounds of combating terrorism, and on their compliance with fundamental rights; rejects any exceptional procedure which manifestly creates an imbalance in the positions of the prosecution and the defence in judicial proceedings, such as secret hearings or sentencing in secret, or which gives governments special powers to censor the media or allow secret surveillance on the population; note ...[+++]s and deplores the fact that policies on combating terrorism are being gradually extended to a growing number of crimes and offences, giving rise in particular to an increase in the number of summary judicial proceedings and of minimum sentences that must be served in full, and in the information being recorded on the population;

99. Calls on the FRA to conduct a study, in collaboration with the UN Special Rapporteur concerned, on special laws and procedures justified on grounds of combating terrorism, and on their compliance with fundamental rights; rejects any exceptional procedure which manifestly creates an imbalance in the positions of the prosecution and the defence in judicial proceedings, such as secret hearings or sentencing in secret, or which gives governments special powers to censor the media or allow secret surveillance on the population; notes ...[+++] and deplores the fact that policies on combating terrorism are being gradually extended to a growing number of crimes and offences, giving rise in particular to an increase in the number of summary judicial proceedings and of minimum sentences that must be served in full, and in the information being recorded on the population;

What has happened most recently is action has been taken pursuant to the Special Economic Measures Act, which was instituted in order to allow for more targeted sanctions in certain instances, and among those are situations that either are an international crisis or threaten to be an international crisis. So that's the triggering mechanism in this context.

With respect to Canada’s anti-terrorism framework and the objective of balancing the need to protect the security of Canadians with the need to protect and preserve rights and freedoms, we have identified the following 13 general issues as requiring comment and the attention of government: (1) the definition of “terrorist” activity; (2) racial profiling; (3) the need for a special advocate during certain proceedings; (4) the listing of terrorist entities; (5) the scope of the offences relating to financing and providing services in support of terrorism; (6) the denial or revocation of an organization’s charitable status, (7) issues ...[+++]in relation to the Canada Evidence Act; (8) investigative hearings and recognizance with conditions/preventive arrest; (9) electronic surveillance and the interception of private communications; (10) concerns relating to the privacy of Canadians and the sharing of information; (11) issues in relation to the Security of Information Act; (12) detention and deportation under a security certificate; and (13) the need for adequate oversight and review of matters relating to Canada’s anti-terrorism framework.

In situations where this civilian oversight capacity does not exist or where it may conceivably not exist in the future, although it is certainly not a trend to eliminate civilian oversight in Canada, perhaps the special authority granted by the law enforcement justification should also not exist.