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Against Online Surveillance? You Must Be 'For' Child Porn, Says Legislator
An anonymous reader writes "Following up on yesterday's story about the Canadian government's internet surveillance legislation, one of the bill's proponents is now accusing those who oppose it of standing with child pornographers. Those against the legislation include: Law professor Michael Geist, Open Media, the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, the Council of Canadians and many others. 'Public Safety Minister Vic Toews told a Liberal MP he could either stand with the government or "with the child pornographers" prowling online.' Toews is enjoying his Parliamentary Privilege, which grants him the freedom to say pretty much anything he wants without fear of a slander suit."
Minister Toews should be fine, then, with his office's internet access being logged and stored.
Should be perfectly safe - after all, you only have something to fear if you're doing something wrong, or if the government's records leak.
Right?
To a Lisp hacker, XML is S-expressions in drag.
Whenever I see these peope constantly banging the drums of how we have to continually make worse laws about controlling the Internet, one thing comes to my mind:
Why do these government officials keep harping on it? Ministers like Ted Haggard attack gays constantly, and turn out to be gay themselves. Me thinks the government officials might be producing or consuming this material. Otherwise, why, might I ask, are you harping on it so much?
Eh, I was once told by Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter that I was advocating for terrorists breaking military encryption because I was against the DMCA. I was trying to explain to a Town Hall meeting how the DMCA made it illegal for purchasers to exercise the right of fair use to copy a DVD because the content industry had merely put on an invisible wrapper of encryptionbasically they paid for a Bill to fleece us in the digital age. Specter went on a rant that I was talking about wanting to allow terrorists to be able to circumvent military encryption. I tried to correct him, but he was too dumb stupid to correct. (I'd give him the benefit of the doubt that he was really being hyper-intelligent and deftly torpedoing my argument, if his rant wasn't so completely devoid of factual basis and comprised mostly of ignorant run-ons--so I can't even do that.)
Priceless was the 80-something year old lady who approached me in the parking lot while I was sitting in my car waiting to exit. I thought she was going to hit me over the head with her purse, you know, for having the gall to speak so bluntly with a Senator/Elder Statesman. Instead she said that she had no idea what I was talking about, but that was clear the Senator didn't know anything either, and that he should have instead listened to me. She was angry with him for having voted for something he clearly didn't understand. So, even if I didn't get Specter to "get it", at least one of his voters did!
Scott
"Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid."
Don't be silly. You can't profit from tearing down curtains!
Seriously: the minister probably has a stake in a privacy invasion company.
Bio questions? Ask me to start a Q&A journal. Computer analogies available for most topics!
Justice Minister Vic Toews comes from Mennonite-land Manitoba (he is literally a bible belt politician). And he is a divorced philanderer and has fathered children outside his own marriage.
-- I ignore anonymous replies to my comments and postings.
I sent a letter in protest to my MP and got a similar canned response. it appears to be an answer from any conservatives in government. Here was my reply from Pierre Poilievre, my local MP.
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Thank you for your message.
As you point out, these Bills did not pass in an earlier session of Parliament, and will need to be re-introduced. As such, I cannot comment on them until that time and the text is available.
That being said, our message is clear: if people use technology to commit crimes, such as distributing child pornography, the police will apprehend them and they will be punished to the full extent of the law.
Sincerely,
Pierre Poilievre, M.P. Nepean-Carleton
Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities
LP
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There are more than just Old Order Mennonites or Hutterites. Not all drive a horse and buggy or only work related vehicles. Some actually have cars, go to the malls, and dress just like most other people, etc. But often they are considered 'very religious'. And they are very good business people and as such understand that their riding needs to be represented in government. So not all Mennonites are opposed to political participation.
I am not Mennonite but I had to do work in a predominantly Mennonite town called Winkler in southern Manitoba a long time ago for about six months (population about 10,000). I rented a place there for the duration of the project. Good people, if a little closed until they get to know you. At the time it was (and it very well still might be) a dry town' except for one beer hall with a 'hillbilly' feel where outsiders felt out of place. About 5 km west is a town called Morden which has a population of around 8,000. The funny thing is that it looked to me like Morden had enough bars for 18,000 people. Things that make you go hmmmmmmm.
The other thing that is kind of funny was the limited family names. Seemed like the list of last names was extremely dominated by around 12 or 14 including names like: Friesen, Thiessen, Kreider, Neufeld, Neudorf, Teichroeb, Enns, Epp, Funk, Hiebert, Hintz, Wall, and few more. In a town of 10,000. And there were a number of favourite first names like Abe. It was funny and sometimes confusing. I think I knew about 3 or 4 Abe Walls, and 2 or 3 Frank Hieberts. It was funny listening to someone getting paged at the facility I was doing work at: "Phone line 6 for Frank Hiebert... the old one, pick up line 6."
-- I ignore anonymous replies to my comments and postings.
Public Safety Minister Vic Toews, refering to The "Act to enact the Investigating and Preventing Criminal Electronic Communications Act and to amend the Criminal Code and other acts" Said: "He can either stand with us or with the child pornographers," "Lawful access will aid child porn investigations. I call on the NDP to stop making things easier for predators and support these measures." Adolf Hitler himself, referring to such tactics, wrote: “The state must declare the child to be the most precious treasure of the people. As long as the government is perceived as working for the benefit of the children, the people will happily endure almost any curtailment of liberty and almost any deprivation. ” -Mein Kampf, Adolf Hitler, Publ. Houghton Miflin, 1943, Page 403 Mr. Toews, I see you have learned your lessons well.
Undetectable Steganography? Yep, there's an app fo
I lived in the area for three years, and your description is hilariously accurate. The only thing I'd add is that nicknames ("duck boots" comes to mind) were quite prevalent, especially within the greater "Friesen" clan since it's far and away the most common surname. I'm surprised you didn't mention Klassen, since I knew more of them than most of the names on your list.