Saturday, May 26, 2012

And here I thought the Internet Surveillance Act was gone…


Open Media sent me a nice email letting me know that it seems that our pal Vic Toews is still working on locking up the paedophiles and miscreants on the internet by peeking into all of our computers.  It even seems that Vic is even squirreling money away to pay for this effort.  Some are putting the costs at $3 Billion.

If you are interested, here is the link to the Open Media site where they discuss this: http://openmedia.ca/stand

It is well worth the click and it’s short, less than a minute of video and a couple of short paragraphs.  Even a Harper Party Member can deal with that. 

Now can someone help me with this?  We had to get rid of the long form of the census because it was far too intrusive… It is too intrusive to find out how many bedrooms are in your house but it is fine to peek inside your home to see that you spend an inordinate amount of time searching for LoL Cats?  They can be found here: http://icanhascheezburger.com/

The other far too intrusive law that we had to get rid of was the infamous “Billion Dollar Boondoggle”.  This is, of course, the Long Gun Registry.

Lord Stephen and his minions felt it was far too intrusive for the police to know that your neighbour has a rifle or a shot gun in their possession.  How horrendous it is to have someone register a firearm with the government.  Of course the owners of these weapons would know that the government had a record of their purchase because it was in the open.  That is transparency.

Oh, and it was too expensive.

However, Lord Stephen and his minion Vic Toews want to be able to sneak a peek inside your browser to see what you are up to without even bothering to tell you.  They want your Internet Provider to record your stops on the information super highway without telling you.  That is not transparency.

Did you know that if you are investigated for a crime, and they have a Warrant to search your car, they are not legally able to look into your laptop in the back seat without a Warrant to let them?  It seems if you keep a diary, they need a Warrant to open the cover and read it too. 

These are Constitutional Rights.  Vic and Stephen don’t seem to give a rap about Your Constitutional Rights do they?

Another tidbit gleaned from the Open Media link, is the cost of the proposed Bill 30… Now we all have seen the issues our buddies in Ottawa have with telling the truth about how much things cost…

How about $3 Billion?  That’s the projected tab on the Internet Surveillance Act according to those who know about these things.  Why that’s THREE TIMES the amount of the Billion Dollar Boondoggle!  All this to find out that the Bear Cat looks at LoL Cats!

Don’t worry, according to Open Media, the costs will be covered by a telecommunication tax.  You’ll pay a surcharge for Internet Service and for Telephone Service to cover this.

So, Vic is going to spew forth how this is for the children, and I’m all for stopping child porn but this is not the answer.

Vic and his buddies have already laced Bill 30 with loopholes, ways to create exemptions from this online spying bill.  As I understand it, the Cell Phone Carriers are already exempt!  I’ll let you in on a secret, for Ten Bucks per month, I can browse the Internet on my Cell Phone.  If I plug my Cell Phone into my computer, I can use it for a modem to browse the Internet and download whatever I please, Bill C 30 free.  [edit: tethering your device to a computer is probably against your cell agreement... best not to do this eh?]

Listen, the paedophiles are already pretty good at getting their stuff across the Internet without getting caught, how long do you think it would take them to figure a way around Bill 30 Vic?  It took me about 30 seconds and I’m a good guy, I don’t figure out ways around the system for evil.

I figure Vic and his cohorts will try to link this to a recent trial where an accused murderer was found to have child pornography on his computer.  [This information was not available at the trial because there was no warrant to search the computer.]  They will say that the pornography was the reason that this man and his accomplice murdered a child.  The fact that he had the pornography is disturbing, the fact that he murdered is that he is a psychopath.

My biggest fear, and the fear of many I know is that the government will use this law to try and curtail freedom of expression in Canada.  They will use it to track “trouble makers” and others who voice opinions against the current government.

It is already illegal to possess and create child porn in Canada, we don’t need a special law to snoop.  When an arrest is made, the information available to the police on the computer should be sufficient to generate Warrants to investigate others.  We hear about these rings being broken up regularly, by good old fashioned police work.

Look, our Country was built, in part, on the notion that people have certain rights to privacy.  The Police cannot look in your windows or wander through your home without a warrant, they have to justify the need to access your stuff.  The Internet is no different.  If there is reason to believe that someone is looking at bad things on the Internet, if there is reason to believe people are plotting the overthrow of our government, there is a system in place to deal with that.  Get some proof and get a warrant.

It’s that easy and it won’t cost Three Billion Dollars.

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