Have you heard about the Harper government’s plans to allow police to get some of your personal data without a search warrant?
It’s part of a new bill aimed at updating surveillance practices for the Internet era and most of it is long overdue, but the bits about allowing searches without a warrant are a little worrisome.
It has united the opposition NDP and Liberals, and most of the media is saying this all goes too far.
Section 487.11 is the most bothersome part of the law.
Under this section of the bill, any police officer, commissioner of the Competition Bureau, CSIS officer or their designated staff can demand, without reasonable cause or any evidence that a crime is going on, that your Internet service provider give them your name, address, telephone, e-mail address and IP address. Should we accept this?
I would say no.
I don’t think any police body or government agency should have the ability to snoop through my life without a warrant.
This bill is being portrayed as targeting child predators and those against might be in favour of child predators.
Let’s be clear, I am not backing child predators or child pornographers.
Neither does this bill target those people. This a wide-ranging bill, it applies to government agents investigating “any act of Parliament.”
That’s what is worrisome — the potential for abuse is unlimited here.
We have accepted wiretaps on phone lines for years, we accept mail intercepts, so we should allow police to have a framework for allowing online intercepts.
But allowing this kind of searching to go on without a warrant is just too much.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper has said amendments will be welcomed, but Public Safety Minister Vic Toews is still defending this.
Appearing on Ezra Levant’s show The Source on Sun News Network, Toews said these kind of powers exist in most European countries.
Vic, here’s a hint for you: If Europe is doing something, do the opposite. Those folks aren’t big on civil liberties, freedom or small government.
They’re big on big government. And right now they are big on debt and burning stuff.
I’m glad that we’ve seen a groundswell of support for stopping a bill that allows warrantless searches.
Now I just hope those same people demand we stop allowing police and government agents to search the homes and businesses of gun owners without a warrant.
See, the fact is the Firearms Act, in sections 102-105, allows for searches to be conducted without a warrant.
The people yelling about
Bill C 30 now have accepted this abuse going on for years because it was only gun owners who were getting screwed.
In a country like Canada, we shouldn’t be giving over the power to conduct warrantless searches. Ever. If the police think a crime has been committed, they should have to go before a judge or justice of the peace and make the case that there is reasonable cause to believe a crime has been committed and that they need a search warrant.
That should apply whether it involves someone on the Internet or a gun owner.
We need to stand together on these things regardless of political stripe, otherwise we might as well just give police and government officials carte blanche to enter our homes and our lives.
Original Article
Source: toronto sun
Author:
It’s part of a new bill aimed at updating surveillance practices for the Internet era and most of it is long overdue, but the bits about allowing searches without a warrant are a little worrisome.
It has united the opposition NDP and Liberals, and most of the media is saying this all goes too far.
Section 487.11 is the most bothersome part of the law.
Under this section of the bill, any police officer, commissioner of the Competition Bureau, CSIS officer or their designated staff can demand, without reasonable cause or any evidence that a crime is going on, that your Internet service provider give them your name, address, telephone, e-mail address and IP address. Should we accept this?
I would say no.
I don’t think any police body or government agency should have the ability to snoop through my life without a warrant.
This bill is being portrayed as targeting child predators and those against might be in favour of child predators.
Let’s be clear, I am not backing child predators or child pornographers.
Neither does this bill target those people. This a wide-ranging bill, it applies to government agents investigating “any act of Parliament.”
That’s what is worrisome — the potential for abuse is unlimited here.
We have accepted wiretaps on phone lines for years, we accept mail intercepts, so we should allow police to have a framework for allowing online intercepts.
But allowing this kind of searching to go on without a warrant is just too much.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper has said amendments will be welcomed, but Public Safety Minister Vic Toews is still defending this.
Appearing on Ezra Levant’s show The Source on Sun News Network, Toews said these kind of powers exist in most European countries.
Vic, here’s a hint for you: If Europe is doing something, do the opposite. Those folks aren’t big on civil liberties, freedom or small government.
They’re big on big government. And right now they are big on debt and burning stuff.
I’m glad that we’ve seen a groundswell of support for stopping a bill that allows warrantless searches.
Now I just hope those same people demand we stop allowing police and government agents to search the homes and businesses of gun owners without a warrant.
See, the fact is the Firearms Act, in sections 102-105, allows for searches to be conducted without a warrant.
The people yelling about
Bill C 30 now have accepted this abuse going on for years because it was only gun owners who were getting screwed.
In a country like Canada, we shouldn’t be giving over the power to conduct warrantless searches. Ever. If the police think a crime has been committed, they should have to go before a judge or justice of the peace and make the case that there is reasonable cause to believe a crime has been committed and that they need a search warrant.
That should apply whether it involves someone on the Internet or a gun owner.
We need to stand together on these things regardless of political stripe, otherwise we might as well just give police and government officials carte blanche to enter our homes and our lives.
Original Article
Source: toronto sun
Author:
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