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A Halifax-based legal aid agency is urging the provincial government to scrap proposed legislative changes that one of its lawyers says could ramp up surveillance and investigations targeting vulnerable Nova Scotians.
Nadia Shivji, a lawyer with Dalhousie Legal Aid, told the provincial legislature’s public bills committee Monday that an expansion of the Safer Communities and Neighbourhoods Act could disproportionately harm Black, Indigenous and immigrant communities.
The existing act allows people to submit anonymous complaints about a property in their neighbourhood that they believe is linked to criminal activity. Amendments introduced in an omnibus bill tabled last week would allow complaints to be made by residents who don’t live in the area.
“The complaints outside of the community, I think that raises the most risk for marginalized communities and for complaints to be weaponized on the basis of prejudice,” Shivji said in an interview after the meeting.
Shivji told the committee that statistics gathered by various civil liberties organizations across Canada show that populations who are typically subject to over-policing, Indigenous and Black people as well as immigrants, are “the most vulnerable to the negative effects of state action.”
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“This law opens an avenue for targeted harassment that is driven by racism and prejudice,” Shivji told the committee, adding that it’s an unnecessary measure because police already have the power to investigate concerns about potential criminal activity.
Justice Minister Scott Armstrong said the proposed changes are aimed at helping police tackle higher level crime, because the proposed changes also call for increasing the scope of criminal activity.
“We’ve seen a sort of a resurgence of organized crime in Nova Scotia. So the amendments, what they do is expand (the act) … to be able to look into organized crime, gang activity, retail theft and human trafficking,” Armstrong said in an interview after the committee meeting.
Armstrong, who is also the minister responsible for equity and anti-racism, said he takes Shivji’s concerns seriously. However, Armstrong said he does not believe the proposed changes will disproportionately affect marginalized people.
“These are amendments to existing legislation, targeting more high level things (crimes) that really aren’t attributed to racial minorities,” he said.
During the committee meeting, the NDP critic for justice, Suzy Hansen, said Armstrong should have anticipated the concerns about the bill since he is also the minister responsible for equity and anti-racism.
“We want tools to address criminal activity, but we also know there’s unintended consequences that could happen to marginalized communities, to Indigenous folks, to African Nova Scotians,” Hansen said in an interview after the meeting.
Shivji also told the committee she’s concerned that perpetrators of intimate partner violence could potentially take advantage of the proposed amendments to issue bogus complaints against their victims.
“What is to stop an abuser from making reports under SCAN (Safer Communities and Neighbourhoods Act) to have their survivor who is fleeing, followed, surveilled, investigated, and possibly evicted? Nothing,” she said.
Armstrong said complaints made through the legislation are reviewed and verified to ensure they are credible before any action or investigation is taken.
Since 2006, there have been 2,100 complaints that met the bar for an investigation, and 22 were brought to the Supreme Court and resulted in property closure, he said.
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