By David McLaren

This letter is not to disagree with Kimberley Love's recent letter advocating a strategy to deal with mental illness, including the kind of alienation that can lead to radicalization. A police response is certainly required after shots are fired, but something more than even Bill C-51 is needed to prevent disaffected young men from picking up a weapon in the first place.

This is something students at Walkerton's Sacred Heart High School taught me when I visited there a little while ago. And it's just one of the many reasons the NDP voted against Bill C-51. Here I must clear the record made murky by Ms Love's letter, that "Both the Liberals and the NDP have grudgingly accepted that the Bill should be amended – not revoked."

The NDP vigorously opposed the seriously flawed Bill C-51 and offered amendments—as one does in a democracy. None were accepted, so the NDP voted against it. The Liberals voted for Bill C-51 saying they will amend it if they are elected.

That position earned Mr Trudeau this rebuke from a UBC student: "Sir, I must say that supporting the Bill that you know is dangerous while promising to reform it when you've been elected to government is tantamount to putting our rights hostage, and our vote is our ransom."

The government's amendments notwithstanding, Bill C-51 will do more to curtail our rights and freedoms than ISIS has done. That is why New Democrat MPs are vowing to revoke, not just amend, the legislation should they be elected to government.

I would invite Ms Love to check the NDP Twitter feeds and Lead Now's facebook page at Leadnow.ca - À l'Action (postings dated May 7).

David McLaren is the NDP candidate for Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound