Privacy = supporting child porn: Toews
These are the depths to which our political discourse has sunk: defenders of online privacy are aligning themselves with child pornographers, according to Public Safety Minister Vic Toews. Commentary from a Globe & Mail editorialist. Michael Geist on smearing privacy advocates. Petition.
Ian 09:13 on 2012/02/14 Permalink
What, opponents to Con legislation accused of being weak on crime? Unpossible! I’m surprised Toews forgot to accuse online privacy advocates of being pro-terrorism, too.
James 10:47 on 2012/02/14 Permalink
I’m not sure I will feel comfortable commenting on anything political if this goes through. Not that that’s a big loss for you all but I did enjoy reading many of your comments on this blog and I wonder if you all would feel the same. I’m not trying to be alarmist but I feel like the amount of money it takes to make a database of everyone’s stance on hot political issues, where if we are against the government’s current stance we are considered pro-child pornography or pro-terrorism, I don’t think it’s a good idea to post about it. I know that horror stories where people have had problems based on what they said at borders are rare but who knows what the future holds. And not to mention, these databases don’t necessarily expire as far as I know, so I could be a geriatric and have my words used against me. OK [/paranoia]
James 10:49 on 2012/02/14 Permalink
Er in my paranoid rant I kind of became unable to make sentences that make sense, what I meant to say is that it’s so cheap to collect data on people that I don’t doubt they can make a decent database on a person easily.
walkerp 10:52 on 2012/02/14 Permalink
What about all those records from the long bill registry that the Harper government is so desperate to destroy to protect Canadians’ privacy? What if there are some child pornographers who own rifles?
Kate 10:52 on 2012/02/14 Permalink
Yes, it has occurred to me that if things get perceptibly worse in Canada, merely keeping this blog will have me marked down as an enemy of the regime. But you know what? Putting our heads down and not speaking up is not going to help.
Charles 12:15 on 2012/02/14 Permalink
I found it eerie that since Harper has been in government, he has followed every decision that George W Bush has made (cutting funding to foreign clinics that provide information on abortion, one sided and unconditional support for Israel, heavy reliance on oil production, etc), uses the same tactics and arguments (sometimes word for word), etc. Is there a neo-con, born again christian politics manual out there that he’s following?
James 12:36 on 2012/02/14 Permalink
this is one manual that was (apparently) influential in the USA:
http://www.yuricareport.com/Dominionism/FreeCongressEssay.html
or skip to the highlights: http://www.theocracywatch.org/yurica_weyrich_manual.htm
Anto 13:03 on 2012/02/14 Permalink
Well I usually hate this kind of sentence, but here goes: If you censor yourself for fear of later consequences, then Harper has truly won.
mdblog 13:16 on 2012/02/14 Permalink
Harper is an evangelical Christian so it’s fitting that his policies have been in line with GWB.
qatzelok 13:45 on 2012/02/14 Permalink
@ Charles “he has followed every decision that George W Bush has made”
The reason Harper “decides” the same things as W is because they’re both just avatars for the same group of private interests. That’s what 30% of Canadians voted for: a happy face mask on top of corporate fascism.
Tux 09:23 on 2012/02/15 Permalink
They’ve got printable post cards to protest this over at http://sendvictoewsavalentine.ca/ – postage is free! It’s an easy way to protest that I think will speak much louder to the grey-haired technophobes in Ottawa than any online petition.