Mask Ban Bill Nears Final Stage In House Of Commons

CBC | Posted: 09/18/2012 3:28 pm Updated: 09/18/2012 8:42 pm

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A bill that would make it illegal to wear a mask during a violent demonstration is nearing its final hurdle in the House of Commons. (AP)

A bill that would make it illegal to wear a mask during a violent demonstration is nearing its final hurdle in the House of Commons, with just two hours of debate left.

Bill C-309 would make it a crime for people rioting or at an unlawful protest to conceal their identities. It's already illegal to wear a disguise when committing an indictable, or more serious, offence, which includes rioting. Unlawful protests, however, don't fall under that law because they're classified as a summary conviction, or less serious, offence.

An unlawful assembly is a gathering that causes fear. It's up to city officials to decide what constitutes a riot.

Last May, MPs on the House justice committee increased the penalty in the bill to 10 years for rioters who conceal their faces and five years for those at an unlawful protest. The maximum sentence for rioting is two years.

The committee sent the bill back to the House last May. Debate will resume Tuesday evening for an hour. MPs must vote on the changed bill before it can go on to the Senate to be studied in the Upper Chamber.

The second hour of debate is likely to be sometime in the next week, with a final vote at third reading expected at the end of October.

Blake Richards, the MP behind the bill, says he wanted to give police another tool to prosecute rioters and he was told the existing law was difficult to apply.

Earlier this year, the City of Montreal passed a bylaw to ban masks during protests. The move came amid massive student protests in Quebec over the then government's plan to allow universities to raise tuition fees.

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Stanley Cup Vancouver Scene Hockey
Rioters burn police cars after the Vancouver Canucks were defeated by the Boston Bruins in the NHL's Stanley Cup Final in Vancouver, British Columbia, on Wednesday June 15, 2011. Angry, drunken revelers ran wild Wednesday night after the Vancouver Canucks' 4-0 loss to Boston in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals, setting cars and garbage cans ablaze, smashing windows, showering giant TV screens with beer bottles and dancing atop overturned vehicles. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press - Darryl Dyck)
Stanley Cup Vancouver Scene Hockey
Riot police look on as two police cars burn during a riot in downtown Vancouver, British Columbia Wednesday, June 15, 2011 following the Vancouver Canucks 4-0 loss to the Boston Bruins in game 7 of the Stanley Cup hockey final. Angry, drunken revelers ran wild Wednesday night after the Vancouver Canucks' 4-0 loss to Boston in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals, setting cars and garbage cans ablaze, smashing windows, showering giant TV screens with beer bottles and dancing atop overturned vehicles. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press - Geoff Howe)
Stanley Cup Vancouver Scene Hockey
Revelers retreat as a police flash bang goes off following the Vancouver Canucks being defeated by the Boston Bruins in the NHL Stanley Cup Final in Vancouver, British Columbia, Wednesday, June 15, 2011. Angry, drunken revelers ran wild Wednesday night after the Vancouver Canucks' 4-0 loss to Boston in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals, setting cars and garbage cans ablaze, smashing windows, showering giant TV screens with beer bottles and dancing atop overturned vehicles. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Darryl Dyck)
Stanley Cup Vancouver Scene Hockey
Police officers contain rioters following the Vancouver Canucks being defeated by the Boston Bruins in the NHL Stanley Cup Final in Vancouver, British Columbia, Wednesday, June 15, 2011. Angry, drunken revelers ran wild Wednesday night after the Vancouver Canucks' 4-0 loss to Boston in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals, setting cars and garbage cans ablaze, smashing windows, showering giant TV screens with beer bottles and dancing atop overturned vehicles. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Darryl Dyck)
Stanley Cup Vancouver Scene Hockey
A car burns behind a police officer following a riot that broke out after the Vancouver Canucks were defeated by the Boston Bruins in the NHL Stanley Cup Final in Vancouver, British Columbia, on Wednesday June 15, 2011. Angry, drunken revelers ran wild Wednesday night after the Vancouver Canucks' 4-0 loss to Boston in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals, setting cars and garbage cans ablaze, smashing windows, showering giant TV screens with beer bottles and dancing atop overturned vehicles. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press - Darryl Dyck)
Stanley Cup Vancouver Scene Hockey
A police car burns during a riot in downtown Vancouver, British Columbia Wednesday, June 15, 2011 following the Vancouver Canucks 4-0 loss to the Boston Bruins in game 7 of the Stanley Cup hockey final. Angry, drunken revelers ran wild Wednesday night after the Vancouver Canucks' 4-0 loss to Boston in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals, setting cars and garbage cans ablaze, smashing windows, showering giant TV screens with beer bottles and dancing atop overturned vehicles. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Jonathan Hayward)
Stanley Cup Vancouver Scene Hockey
Vancouver Canucks hockey fans take part in a riot in downtown Vancouver, British Columbia Wednesday, June 15, 2011 following the Vancouver Canucks 4-0 loss to the Boston Bruins in game 7 of the Stanley Cup hockey final. Angry, drunken revelers ran wild Wednesday night after the Vancouver Canucks' 4-0 loss to Boston in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals, setting cars and garbage cans ablaze, smashing windows, showering giant TV screens with beer bottles and dancing atop overturned vehicles. (AP PhotoThe Canadian Press - )Ryan Remiorz
Stanley Cup Vancouver Scene Hockey
A burnt out car lies upside down in the street following the Vancouver Canucks being defeated by the Boston Bruins in the NHL Stanley Cup Final in Vancouver, British Columbia, Wednesday, June 15, 2011. Angry, drunken revelers ran wild Wednesday night after the Vancouver Canucks' 4-0 loss to Boston in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals, setting cars and garbage cans ablaze, smashing windows, showering giant TV screens with beer bottles and dancing atop overturned vehicles. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Geoff Howe)
Riot Breaks Out After Game In Vancouver
VANCOUVER, BC - JUNE 15: Riot police walk in front of a burning vehicle on June 15, 2011 in Vancouver, Canada. Vancouver broke out in riots after their hockey team the Vancouver Canucks lost in Game Seven of the Stanley Cup Finals. (Photo by Rich Lam/Getty Images)
Riot Breaks Out After Game In Vancouver
VANCOUVER, BC - JUNE 15: A person with a Candanian flag walks in front of a burning vehicle on June 15, 2011 in Vancouver, Canada. Vancouver broke out in riots after their hockey team the Vancouver Canucks lost in Game Seven of the Stanley Cup Finals. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)
Riot Breaks Out After Game In Vancouver
VANCOUVER, BC - JUNE 15: People run out of a Hudson Bay Co store with merchandise on June 15, 2011 in Vancouver, Canada. Vancouver broke out in riots after their hockey team the Vancouver Canucks lost in Game Seven of the Stanley Cup Finals. (Photo by Rich Lam/Getty Images)
Riot Breaks Out After Game In Vancouver
VANCOUVER, BC - JUNE 15: A person walks in front of a burning vehicle on June 15, 2011 in Vancouver, Canada. Vancouver broke out in riots after their hockey team the Vancouver Canucks lost in Game Seven of the Stanley Cup Finals. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)
Riot Breaks Out After Game In Vancouver
VANCOUVER, BC - JUNE 15: Police on horseback ride through the street past a fire on June 15, 2011 in Vancouver, Canada. Vancouver broke out in riots after their hockey team the Vancouver Canucks lost in Game Seven of the Stanley Cup Finals. (Photo by Rich Lam/Getty Images)
Riot Breaks Out After Game In Vancouver
VANCOUVER, BC - JUNE 15: Police on horseback ride through the street past a fire on June 15, 2011 in Vancouver, Canada. Vancouver broke out in riots after their hockey team the Vancouver Canucks lost in Game Seven of the Stanley Cup Finals. (Photo by Rich Lam/Getty Images)
Riot Breaks Out After Game In Vancouver
VANCOUVER, BC - JUNE 15: Riot police stand in formation on June 15, 2011 in Vancouver, Canada. Vancouver broke out in riots after their hockey team the Vancouver Canucks lost in Game Seven of the Stanley Cup Finals. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)
Riot Breaks Out After Game In Vancouver
VANCOUVER, BC - JUNE 15: Police clash with rioters on June 15, 2011 in Vancouver, Canada. Vancouver broke out in riots after their hockey team the Vancouver Canucks lost in Game Seven of the Stanley Cup Finals. (Photo by Rich Lam/Getty Images)
Riot Breaks Out After Game In Vancouver
VANCOUVER, BC - JUNE 15: People take pictures of a burning vehicle on June 15, 2011 in Vancouver, Canada. Vancouver broke out in riots after their hockey team the Vancouver Canucks lost in Game Seven of the Stanley Cup Finals. (Photo by Rich Lam/Getty Images)
Riot Breaks Out After Game In Vancouver
VANCOUVER, BC - JUNE 15: Riot police walk in the street as a couple kiss on June 15, 2011 in Vancouver, Canada. Vancouver broke out in riots after their hockey team the Vancouver Canucks lost in Game Seven of the Stanley Cup Finals. (Photo by Rich Lam/Getty Images)
Riot Breaks Out After Game In Vancouver
VANCOUVER, BC - JUNE 15: A person walks in front of a burning vehicle on June 15, 2011 in Vancouver, Canada. Vancouver broke out in riots after their hockey team the Vancouver Canucks lost in Game Seven of the Stanley Cup Finals. (Photo by Rich Lam/Getty Images)
Riot Breaks Out After Game In Vancouver
VANCOUVER, BC - JUNE 15: Riot police stand in front of two burning police cars as people look on June 15, 2011 in Vancouver, Canada. Vancouver broke out in riots after their hockey team the Vancouver Canucks lost in Game Seven of the Stanley Cup Finals. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)
Riot Breaks Out After Game In Vancouver
VANCOUVER, BC - JUNE 15: People pose in front of a burning vehicle on June 15, 2011 in Vancouver, Canada. Vancouver broke out in riots after their hockey team the Vancouver Canucks lost in Game Seven of the Stanley Cup Finals. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
Riot Breaks Out After Game In Vancouver
VANCOUVER, BC - JUNE 15: Rioters try to flip a car on June 15, 2011 in Vancouver, Canada. Vancouver broke out in riots after their hockey team the Vancouver Canucks lost in Game Seven of the Stanley Cup Finals. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
Stanley Cup Vancouver Scene Hockey
Police officers walk amongst debris after a riot broke out following the Vancouver Canucks being defeated by the Boston Bruins in the NHL Stanley Cup Final in Vancouver, British Columbia, Wednesday, June 15, 2011. Angry, drunken revelers ran wild Wednesday night after the Vancouver Canucks' 4-0 loss to Boston in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals, setting cars and garbage cans ablaze, smashing windows, showering giant TV screens with beer bottles and dancing atop overturned vehicles. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Darryl Dyck)
Stanley Cup Vancouver Scene Hockey
A car burns amidst a crowd following the Vancouver Canucks being defeated by the Boston Bruins in the NHL Stanley Cup Final in Vancouver, British Columbia, Wednesday, June 15, 2011. Angry, drunken revelers ran wild Wednesday night after the Vancouver Canucks' 4-0 loss to Boston in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals, setting cars and garbage cans ablaze, smashing windows, showering giant TV screens with beer bottles and dancing atop overturned vehicles. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Darryl Dyck)
Stanley Cup Vancouver Scene Hockey
Smoke plumes rise from police cars set on fire following the Vancouver Canucks being defeated by the Boston Bruins in the NHL Stanley Cup Final in Vancouver, British Columbia, Wednesday, June 15, 2011. Angry, drunken revelers ran wild Wednesday night after the Vancouver Canucks' 4-0 loss to Boston in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals, setting cars and garbage cans ablaze, smashing windows, showering giant TV screens with beer bottles and dancing atop overturned vehicles. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Darryl Dyck)
Stanley Cup Vancouver Scene Hockey
Police officers stand amongst debris after rioters moved through the area following the Vancouver Canucks being defeated by the Boston Bruins in the NHL Stanley Cup Final in Vancouver, British Columbia, Wednesday, June 15, 2011. Angry, drunken revelers ran wild Wednesday night after the Vancouver Canucks' 4-0 loss to Boston in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals, setting cars and garbage cans ablaze, smashing windows, showering giant TV screens with beer bottles and dancing atop overturned vehicles. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Darryl Dyck)
Stanley Cup Vancouver Scene Hockey
A police officer walks amid debris following the Vancouver Canucks being defeated by the Boston Bruins in the NHL Stanley Cup Final in Vancouver, British Columbia, Wednesday, June 15, 2011. Angry, drunken revelers ran wild Wednesday night after the Vancouver Canucks' 4-0 loss to Boston in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals, setting cars and garbage cans ablaze, smashing windows, showering giant TV screens with beer bottles and dancing atop overturned vehicles. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Darryl Dyck)
Stanley Cup Vancouver Scene Hockey
Police officers stand together after rioters burned police cars following the Vancouver Canucks being defeated by the Boston Bruins in the NHL Stanley Cup Final in Vancouver, British Columbia, Wednesday, June 15, 2011. Angry, drunken revelers ran wild Wednesday night after the Vancouver Canucks' 4-0 loss to Boston in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals, setting cars and garbage cans ablaze, smashing windows, showering giant TV screens with beer bottles and dancing atop overturned vehicles. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Darryl Dyck)
Stanley Cup Vancouver Scene Hockey
Police officers hold back the crowd after rioters burned police cars following the Vancouver Canucks being defeated by the Boston Bruins in the NHL's Stanley Cup Final in Vancouver, British Columbia Wednesday June 15, 2011. Angry, drunken revelers ran wild Wednesday night after the Vancouver Canucks' 4-0 loss to Boston in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals, setting cars and garbage cans ablaze, smashing windows, showering giant TV screens with beer bottles and dancing atop overturned vehicles. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press - Darryl Dyck)
Stanley Cup Vancouver Scene Hockey
Vancouver Canucks fans watch as two police cars burn during a riot in downtown Vancouver, British Columbia Wednesday, June 15, 2011 following the Vancouver Canucks 4-0 loss to the Boston Bruins in game 7 of the Stanley Cup hockey final. Angry, drunken revelers ran wild Wednesday night after the Vancouver Canucks' 4-0 loss to Boston in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals, setting cars and garbage cans ablaze, smashing windows, showering giant TV screens with beer bottles and dancing atop overturned vehicles. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Jonathan Hayward)

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pinkibus

1823 Fans

12:19 AM on 09/20/2012

Is it okay to wear a niqab? How about a burka?

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Raylan Givens

41 Fans

10:58 PM on 09/19/2012

Just another step to a total police state. Even if there are peaceful protests, like Occupy, an undercover can easily come in there and throw a trash can at a window, thereby making it a riot and leading to many arrests of peaceful demonstrators.

procrustes13

511 Fans

10:38 PM on 09/19/2012

Montreal municipal bylaw P-6 says that demonstrations will be declared to be illegal if people wear masks without "reasonable motive". Who is to say that to remain anonymous is not a "reasonable motive". By the way, New York City has an antimask rule and a court ruled that an exception could be made for the Ku Klux Klan! That's because the Klan members wanted to remain anonymous because they feared reprisals. Despite this they arrested many Occupy people for wearing masks.

HUFFPOST SUPER USER

Jack Cox

Telling it like it is.

191 Fans

10:09 PM on 09/19/2012

But here's my question what if it's a lawful protest that suddenly turns violent, what happens then?

10:27 PM on 09/19/2012

The police would announce that it's an Unlawful Assembly and demand immediate dispersal and then people would be forced to remove their masks and disperse. It may not be enough to disperse, and if you went to the protest with friends and try to leave with them they'd try to break up your little group also; if you wear masks your little group they may arrest people for that. That is if people hear the police. On 13 August in Montreal I found out that they'd declared Unlawful Assembly at a point in the demonstration when I heard no such announcements at all and it was reading the twitter feed later on that I discovered this. So there could be an Unlawful Assembly declared (completely at police discretion, they have made such declarations with no proof that the definition of an unlawful assembly has happened) and people don't hear and someone ends up being nabbed with a mask by police and ends up facing five years in prison.

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06:51 PM on 09/19/2012

An unlawful assembly is a group of two or more people who people in the area may have a reasonable belief may cause a tumult or reason to believe that they may cause other people to cause a tumult. This proposal is pure police state and in Montreal they'd only be so daft as to dust this one off if they really don't like someone, otherwise they'd just get a P-6 ticket, the fine of which was quintupled in mid-May.

06:45 PM on 09/19/2012

Montreal did not pass a bylaw to ban masks. They simply added the presence of masked demonstrators as grounds under the unlawful assembly municipal bylaw P-6 as grounds to declare such to be illegal. Also added was a clause claiming that to not provide a fixed route for the demonstration also was grounds to declare it to be illegal as an "unlawful assembly" though there's no logic behind that really... Police also have the option to proclaim an "unlawful assembly" according to the criminal code and I witnessed a particularly pathetic case where police claimed a small party of mainly older people to be an unlawful assembly though they could not possibly be a danger to cause a "tumult" which is part of the criminal code's definition of such.

Aeons

50 Fans

03:47 PM on 09/19/2012

if the language of this is that it can be applied whenever a group of people induces fear, does that mean that we can use it on the House of Commons?

cityprole

old,sly, crafty,arty, leftie

474 Fans

11:01 AM on 09/19/2012

LOL...what a joke this government is..what about face paint, or glasses, noses and moustaches..?
Or, let's say, false beards? Wigs...clown shoes? Look out drag queens, you're next! What, women wearing pants? That's a disguise! Off with their heads!
Is there nothing of any consequence left for the HarpoKlowns to destroy, that they set their dim-bulb minds on such pettiness?

Voices in the Wilderness

54 Fans

09:30 AM on 09/19/2012

Well, there goes Halloween. There's nothing more frightening than a gaggle of masked screaming kids demanding treats under threat of soaped windows.

10:30 PM on 09/19/2012

Indeed. The neighbours may have reasonable cause to believe that they'd cause a tumult and if it's two people or more, that fits the definition of an Unlawful Assembly, an invention it seems of the tyrannical King Henry VII.

zaksawyer

38 Fans

07:38 AM on 09/19/2012

Gods forbid if the hijjab ladies come out to protest, they might find themselves in jail!

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recumbentguy

129 Fans

07:33 AM on 09/19/2012

They are more concerned about the symbolism that represents "OCCUPY" than anonymity.

NTodd

Aude Sapere

324 Fans

05:44 AM on 09/19/2012

We don't need this law. We already have a law like this. It's stupid.

Skookum1

truth can't be bought, but lies sure can be sold..

197 Fans

03:22 AM on 09/19/2012

so when a peaceful, non-violent demonstration is attacked by the police, or by agitators either pretending to be on their side, or from another group hostile to them, they are required to remove any masks they are wearing?

Who gets to define "violent"? The same people who pepper spray people sitting with linked arms, as at UC Davis? The same people attacking peacful protestors with truncheons while......wearing masked helmets?

Oh, what a wonderful century. I'm glad my parents didn't live to see this.....having fought for freedom only to watch it burned at the torch by the man who made himself king.

Halloween will never be the same. Nor will Guy Fawkes Day.....or Carnival.

the anarchist Clown Army in Denmark only wore red clown noses as their uniform. Clown noses were also banned, though if I'm not mistaken that, being anarchists, the Clown Army just ignored that law.......

As for the clowns perpetrating this in Ottawa, interesting isn't it that they would make masks illegal while at the same time making it legal for their lapdog media to lie?

10:34 PM on 09/19/2012

The police get to decide what's real and what's not at protests. They can declare demonstrations to be illegal under municipal bylaws or to be Unlawful Assemblies or to be riots. They can do this without the conditions for such being met, I've sen it before. They also have the right to force people to move; this permits them to avoid being filmed, photographed and to force protesters away from areas at their leisure and to arrest those who don't move quickly enough. They have all these powers on the ground and this may result in cases being thrown out of court in the cases of arrests for fictitious offenses, but the repressive acts are done. That's the tactic they're using in New York; arrest as many people as possible for all sorts of silly things and then the charges are all thrown out but you've put a bunch of people out of commission during the protest.

WTFman

153 Fans

02:42 AM on 09/19/2012

Well, just do all of your protesting on Halloween, and Bob's your uncle!

ladylala

9 Fans

12:12 AM on 09/19/2012

This is a violation of our rights as Canadians and I cannot believe a court would uphold. What is happening to our democracy? It is slipping away under Harper and premier like Christy Clark in BC who is afraif to recall our legislature bdcause she might have to defend her party.

Mask Ban Bill Nears Final Stage In House Of Commons

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Riot Breaks Out After Game In Vancouver

Riot Breaks Out After Game In Vancouver

Riot Breaks Out After Game In Vancouver

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