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U.S. Says Canada Cares Too Much About Liberties

A cheeky writer at Canada's Ottawa Citizen newspaper has written a story about the U.S. State Department's 2002 Patterns of Global Terrorism.

3 of 1,329 comments (clear)

  1. Interesting read but.. by praksys · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Privacy is not liberty, nor is it a "civil liberty", although it might be a "civil right". A liberty is a right to carry out some type of action without being obstructed by anyone else. Privacy rights restrict the actions of others (to obtain or publish information about you) which makes them claim-rights. So the US complaint about Canadian privacy laws has nothing at all to do with liberty.

    This gives a pretty good introduction to the theoretical classification of rights.

    The stuff about legalizing dope is of course another matter entirely. I have no idea why American politicians gets so wound up about dope, when most Americans have used it without comming to much harm.

  2. Crime in Canada by ottawanker · · Score: 5, Interesting
    .. suggests that while Canada has been helpful in the fight against terrorism, it doesn't spend enough on policing and places too much emphasis on civil liberties.

    This is interesting.. the following are some stats I found on crime in Canada and the US (and Sweden, see this page.)
    - Homicides per 100,000......Canada-1.8..US-5.5
    - Assault/Threat per 100,000.Canada-4.0..US-5.7
    - Prisoners per 100,000......Canada-118..US-546
  3. Re:Terrorists won already by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Reading this reminded me of something I read in my local newspaper (Canadian) a few weeks after 9/11.

    It was basically a transcribed message (or something like it) from Osama bin Laden saying, essentially, that they (al Queda) had already won. Supposedly, the idea behind their attacks was not to kill citizens, or destroy landmarks. It was to kill liberties, and destroy freedom. Apparantly Osama wanted the citizens of the US to live in fear, and to loose their freedoms. He wanted them to experience life as other countries did, with checkpoints, searches, and the constant fear of attacks.

    It would seem he succeeded admirably.