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British Columbia Acts Against Patriot Act

Posted by timothy on from the let's-trade-wheat-and-dollars-but-not-that-stuff dept.

An anonymous reader writes "According to the CBC, the province of British Columbia will guard against the Patriot Act. This affects U.S.-owned companies operating in BC. Canadian subsidiaries in BC will be prohibited from giving certain information to the U.S. government."

5 of 26 comments (clear)

  1. Re:My blog by Creepy+Crawler · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Impressively thought out..

    Im serious about this request. Have you talked to any congressman/woman about making a bill for this? Having jobs "stay in the US" and "Who has YOUR medical information" could clich a bill quite easy. Have someone like 20/20 or DateLine run that second blurp as a story.

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  2. I am so glad to hear this! by FFFish · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I had no idea that my medical and financial records might be accessible to the US spy agencies. There's nothing I particularly need to hide from anyone, but, dammit, I value my rights, and my right to privacy is a biggie.

    I do so wish the USA would go back inside its own borders and leave the rest of us alone.

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    Don't like it? Respond with words, not karma.
  3. Residents of Vancouver (and GVRD) by Screaming+Lunatic · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Vaughn Palmer has been covering this issue extensively on Voice of BC. He interviewed the privacy commissioner a couple weeks ago. The Vancouver Sun, The Province, Global TV, BCTV, CityTV, and even the Georgia Straight have pretty much ignored this issue. I highly recommend watching VoBC. It's live on Wednesdays at 8PM, repeats on Saturdays and Sundays.

    I'm still not convinced that the legislation the the government intends to pass in BC can overrule the Patriot Act. The fact that Geoff Plant, the BC Attorney General, is tyring minimize the perceived risk is a complete and utter joke.

    1. Re:Residents of Vancouver (and GVRD) by DeepHurtn! · · Score: 3, Interesting
      I'm still not convinced that the legislation the the government intends to pass in BC can overrule the Patriot Act.

      Neither am I. There's a big problem with Plant's logic -- he keeps on asserting that local BC laws will trump US laws when these companies are doing business in BC. But if he is wrong there is no way of knowing it, because if he is wrong then the gagging powers of the Act will also be in effect -- so that the companies that have given up our private information will never tell anyone that they ever have. Plant spoke about punishing companies that don't comply with BC laws -- but the BC government will never even know that the BC laws were violated!

      The only way to ensure this doesn't happen is to NOT OUTSOURCE OUR PRIVATE INFORMATION TO US COMPANIES. Sorry to say, but they can't be trusted.

  4. Two hands by phorm · · Score: 4, Interesting

    On one hand, it shows that the government is aware of the privacy risk. It also shows that they're willing to stand up the some of the US pressure on this issue and overrule the "terrorism" buzzword.

    On the other hand, past shows that many such bills may be passed for good publicity, but when it comes to actually enforcing/using them it just doesn't happen.

    So basically, it's going to be a case of wait-and-see... as to whether this law is strong enough to actually do something against the issue of sovereignty between mingled economies and local privacy... and as to whether or not the government is strong enough to actually enforce the laws if/when they're broken.

    As a citizen of BC, Canada... I consider it at least a step in the right direction. I wish it would get more publicity so that at the least it could notify the Canadian people of the risks to our privacy due to US corporate co-mingling.