Vic Toews

With Bill C-30, currently before Parliament, the federal government means to stick its nose in our web browsers and violate Canadians’ privacy online. In the first draft of the bill, the government has failed to find a solution that both protects children from online predators and prohibits the government from watching our online behaviour without a warrant. And apparently Bill C-30 would allow law enforcement to record our online activities as well.

To put it bluntly, Canadians are pissed.

The bill is purportedly about protecting children from online predators. It’s even called the Protecting Children from Internet Predators Act. The extra powers given to police, however, would allow for anyone to be spied on — even if there is no reasonable cause for suspicion.

If the government wants to stop online predators from preying on children, they should monitor their IP addresses, and then throw the book at them. Bring in the goddamn SWAT team if you have to. But law enforcement should first have probable cause before spying on Canadians, and when they have established probable cause they should still have to get a judge to a sign off on a warrant. Only after all that should police be allowed to start their surveillance.

Unless the government suspects wrongdoing, and unless they have evidence that what we’re doing is illegal, they shouldn’t monitor what we do online.

Asking the government to only target suspected criminals seems like a reasonable position, but according to Vic Toews, the Minister of Public Safety, anyone who opposes federal plans to make electronic surveillance easier for police is siding “with child pornographers.”

Nice try. As it turns out, a lot of Canadians still object to the bill on the grounds that it invades their privacy for no good reason.

And if Minister Toews wants to access what I’m viewing online, then I should be able to see what he‘s doing behind the computer screen. Why can’t I see what music he’s downloading, what YouTube videos he’s watching and who he’s talking with online? Maybe I should see his emails and bank records too, while I’m at it.

The fact is, most Canadians are not child pornographers, they’re not threatening people online or trying to scam others out of their hard-earned cash. Instead, they’re talking to friends on Facebook, watching YouTube videos and sometimes (reluctantly) doing research for school assignments.

Privacy is a right of all Canadians, but apparently the Canadian government doesn’t appreciate this right. It’s about time they got their heads out of their collective asses, and go back to the drawing board. This bill, as it was first drafted, is not a fool-proof solution to online crime.

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Photo: victoews.com