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Canadian Government Going Big Brother?

Posted by timothy on from the is-it-mooses-or-meese dept.

Eh-Wire writes "If this article by Canadian privacy expert Michael Geist is any indication of what the Canadian Government has in mind for the Canadian Internet surfing public, then it looks like the Canadian public should be concerned. This does not look good!"

4 of 479 comments (clear)

  1. Where is the Privacy Commissioner? by Staplerh · · Score: 5, Informative

    Hmm, hopefully our privacy commissioner will step up to the plate on this issue. A few weeks ago, Slashdot was trumpeting the privacy commissioner as a good thing for Canada - now I see a few other posters desparaging Canada. This is good, but hopefully if people raise enough awareness (the Star article will help), and word gets out things can change.

    Our government bowed to public pressure with respects to the American ballistic missile defence programme, and they'd bow to any sort of pressure towards the ISPs with regards to this. Of course, it can't hurt to let the privacy commissioner know that people care about this issue.

    Privacy Commissioner: http://www.privcom.gc.ca/

    --
    "There's no success like failure, and failure's no success at all."
    - Bob Dylan
  2. Re:From what I've learned from living in Canada. by Frostalicious · · Score: 5, Informative

    I lived in Vancouver, BC for a couple of months a few years ago.

    I've lived in Vancouver for 32 years, and I think you did not get an accurate picture in your couple of months. There is great outrage whenever scandal shows up. The provincial NDP party was recently voted into oblivion due to scandal. No premiere has survived re-election for as long as I can remember. The federal Liberals went from massively dominant to a minority government due to scandal.

    There was the
    bingogate scandal
    fast ferries scandal
    sponsorship scandal
    casinogate scandal
    tainted blood scandal
    strippergate

    The list goes on. If I was to complain about something, it would be about too much scandal.

  3. Re:I don't think so. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    If only that were true. The government's plans on lawful access as described in the article, as well as the recommendations on copyright, come from politicians and policy makers, not lobbyists. Geist's website now includes a link to a version of the article with background links on these issues.

  4. Proportion... BLOWN!!! by Goose42 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Thank you Micheal Geist, for blowing something this routine out of proportion.

    Thankfully, Canada has one of the most online governments on the planet. Here's exactly what they, and the public that responded to the governement, had to say about the Lawful Access updates. Of particular note is the Privacy Commissioner's comments:

    "# It must be demonstrably necessary in order to meet some specific need.
    # It must be demonstrably likely to be effective in achieving its intended purpose.
    # The intrusion on privacy must be proportional to the security benefit derived.
    # It must be demonstrable that no other, less privacy-intrusive, measure would suffice to achieve the same purpose."

    The law isn't going to pass if it doesn't meet those criteria, among others. I honestly don't see a problem. The only reason that this update is going through is to ensure that law enforcement have the same abilities, irregardless of the technology. They can already intercept telephone and fax communications lawfully, this just ensures tehy can do the same with TCP/IP traffic.