Should Anti-terrorism Act provisions be renewed?

Harper's blatant inference that the Liberal Party's opposition to renewal of provisions of the Anti-terrorism Act are based on the personal relationships of Navdeep Bain and a debt that Stephane Dion owes to the Sikh community, is simply ludicrous. No party would jeopardize the safety of Canadian citizens for a political debt and for Harper to suggest this is ridiculous. The only good news in all of the furor of the past couple of days is that the public once again gets to see the Mr. Hyde that Harper has managed to hide pretty effectively in the past six months.

It's a good thing too because it really wasn't shaping up to be a good couple of days for the Liberals with former Liberals and some current and future ones coming out for extending the
Investigative Hearings and Recognizance with Conditions provisions in the Anti-terrorism Act. Then there was today's Senate panel who today also recommended extending the provisions.
Not to mention the fact that Air India families came out in support of Mr. Harper and extension of the provisions.

Given these facts, should the act be renewed? I took a quick read of the contentious provisions this evening and while I'm no lawyer, I have to agree that there seems to be a real danger the provisions could put civil liberties at risk. For example subsection 7 of the Recognizance with Conditions provision seems to give pretty unlimited powers to impose recognizance or detention on both suspected terrorists and witnesses. Perhaps that's why the Senate panel recommended new safeguards be attached to the provisions. This indicates that even though they are recommending extension there is concern about the violation of civil rights. And the fact that a part of the Act has been struck down by an Ontario judge(Part of Anti-terrorism Act violates charter: judge), I can certainly understand why Stephane Dion is against renewing it.

At the very least careful consideration and thoughtful debate should be undertaken before extending these provisions. Unfortunately, Steven Harper really does seem to want to be the Decider, and so this sort of dialectic seems to be beyond his capacity.