National security bill will help combat homegrown extremism: Goodale

Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale says the Liberal government's sweeping national security bill will make it easier to combat homegrown extremism by improving existing provisions.

Goodale points to a measure in the bill that would clarify the offence of promoting terrorism offences a provision on the books he calls virtually unworkable because it is too vague.

The Liberal government's security legislation, tabled in June, would narrow that provision and flesh out campaign promises to revise other elements of C-51, a contentious omnibus bill brought in by the Harper government after a gunman stormed Parliament Hill in October 2014.

Goodale tells the House of Commons public safety committee that simply repealing all of C-51 would be like trying to unscramble eggs.

NDP public safety critic Matthew Dube dismisses the notion Bill C-51 could not be rescinded in its entirety, noting that a caucus colleague has introduced a private member's bill that would do so.

Goodale says the Liberal bill is based on the most extensive consultation on national security ever undertaken in Canada.