Lest we forget, the nasty side of Stephen Harper is not buried very deeply. It revealed itself back in June 2004, in the frenzied finale of that year’s federal election. On June 18, the Conservatives, then in opposition, issued a pair of press releases attacking their opponents — then prime minister Paul Martin and the Liberals and Jack Layton and the NDP — for being in favour of child pornography
There was a kiddie porn/murder trial in Toronto in the news at the time, and the Conservative war room saw an opportunity to exploit the public’s revulsion. They issued a gratuitous press release headed: “The NDP Caucus Supports Child Pornography?” and a second: “Paul Martin Supports Child Pornography?” That release stated: “Today, Martin says he’s against child pornography. But his voting record proves otherwise.”
Challenged by reporters later that day, Harper did not give an inch. “I’m not going to, in any way, give the Liberal Party any break in its record on child pornography,” he said at a campaign stop. “It is disgraceful, they have had multiple opportunities to do something about it, and they have refused. … I will attack them on it, and if (the Liberals) want to fight the rest of the election on it, good luck to them.”
Paul Martin, who possesses more grace than Harper ever will, declined to engage in a slagging match. “Look,” he told reporters, “this is personal. I am a father and I am a husband, and he has crossed the line. He should apologize.”
Martin didn’t get an apology. However, the Tory war room did retract the release attacking Martin, although not the one attacking Layton and the NDP.
It is futile, I know, to even express this wish, but I do wish Harper and his party could demonstrate some of the grace that Martin displayed in June 2004, that they could curb their contempt for their opponents, that they could bring themselves to apologize when they cross that line.
All of this brings us, of course, to Vic Toews, the minister of public safety, and Bill C-30, the Protecting Children from Internet Predators Act. It’s the legislation that prompted Toews to challenge the Commons, Harper-style: “You’re with us or you’re with the child pornographers.”
What nonsense!
Toews, let it be said, is not the sharpest knife in the Harper cabinet. A former crown attorney, he has an unblemished record as a hardline law-and-order politician, both at the provincial level in Manitoba and for the past 12 years in Ottawa. He reflects the attitudes of many in the Harper caucus. If that were not so, Harper would have ordered him to apologize or moved him to a less sensitive portfolio.
Bill C-30 would give the police the power to compel internet providers to provide personal information about internet users without first having to obtain a warrant. (There is a “dwelling place” exemption; the police would not be allowed to come physically into your home to search your computer unless they had a warrant.)
As might be expected, the internet community is up in arms. Toews, however, seems so uncomprehending of the privacy implications that one wonders whether he has actually read the bill. (It is not unheard-of for ministers not to read legislation. In 1988, John Crosbie, the minister of international trade, admitted he had not read the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement. As he put it, with characteristic brio, “I’m telling you that there isn’t one person in the whole goddamn government who’s read it. I’m the only one honest enough to say so.”)
Crosbie was probably right. Bill C-30, however, is not the free trade agreement (which ran to 315 dense pages). Any minister could read C-30 in 10 minutes. If Toews hasn’t read it yet, he will have time now that Harper, trying to tame the internet fury, has agreed to allow a Commons committee to propose changes. Maybe he’s finally learning that nice works better than nasty.
Original Article
Source: guelph mercury
Author: Geoffrey Stevens
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