In 2001, following the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington, the Canadian government rushed through Bill C-36, subsequently known as the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA). The center-left New Democratic Party (NDP) was the only party in the House of Commons to vote against it.

Opposition to what was, in essence, Canada’s version of the United States’s Patriot Act, was a brave stance to take at the time. Anyone raising concerns over potential threats to civil liberties ran the risk of being accused of being soft on what mainstream commentators referred to as “Islamofascism.”

The party has now reversed course. Almost two decades after the NDP’s challenge to the Anti-Terrorism Act, and six years after they opposed a radical enhancement of the legislation in 2015, the party appears to have shifted away from its robust defense of civil liberties. Days after the “Stop the Steal” riot in Washington, DC, NDP leader Jagmeet Singh called on Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government to ban the hard-right Proud Boys and to place them — alongside the likes of the Taliban and ISIS — on the country’s official list of terrorist entities.