Every political big top seems to have one clown that's a little out of control. The Federal Conservatives' recent recalcitrant Bozo is Minister of Public Safety Vic Toews.
Vic wants to enact legislation that will allow government and the Polezei to probe people's privates in a way not seen since Orwell's 1984, Stalin's Russia or Hitler's Germany. The so-called Lawful Access bill is chilling in its implications and astounding in its scope.
The legislation would require telecommunications companies to hand over personal information of customers, called basic subscriber information, to police without a court order.
In addition to name, address, phone number, email address and name of service provider identifier, the bill will require companies to hand over the Internet protocol address. The opposition parties and Canada’s privacy commissioners say this will allow police to build a detailed profile of people, including law-abiding citizens, using their digital footprint — without any judicial oversight.
The proposed bill will also require Internet service providers and cellphone companies to install equipment for real-time surveillance and will create new police powers designed to access the surveillance data. This means police can order a telecom company to preserve data for a specified period, but must first obtain a warrant to read the actual content.
When the outrage to this ridiculous invasion of privacy reached critical mass, a petulant Toews accused those against the bill of siding with child pornographers (!) Really Vic? Privacy commissioners, members of Parliament, prominent academics, respected journalists, civil libertarians and decent members of the public who oppose this legislation are pro kiddy porn? Questioning the ramifications of legislation does not automatically make one sympathetic to those who exploit children.
Vic, Vic, Vic...such clumsy politics, such puerile polemics. Why not just label everyone resisting the 3 a.m. jack boot on the front door as Poopie-Heads and blast them with a squirt of seltzer.
Oh the irony! Wasn't this the government who just got rid of the intrusive gun registration legislation? Victor, don't you know that what we have in the “lawful access” legislation is a bill that violates the privacy rights of law-abiding citizens, while leaving criminals easy ways to avoid it entirely. Doh!
To the Conservatives credit most of their M.P.'s are distancing themselves from this dystopian proposal and even Harper is quoted as saying, "...we will ensure that Parliament fully studies this bill and that private life is also protected in this regard," which is in effect, the political equivalent of slamming a whipped cream pie in the Toews clown face.
Toews is not acting like a leader. He's acting like a narrow-minded, short-sighted Philistine who preys on people's fears and works their guilt for his own ends. Thankfully, he's now on his clown tricycle back-pedalling furiously out of the spotlight.
I leave you with another quote from a historical clown, albeit one who more resembles Stephen King's Pennywise than the innocuous Bozo:
"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.
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