The concern over nations becoming "Big Brother" surveillance states is alive and well in Canada.

Canada, that bastion of civility, open-mindedness and personal rights?

Yes, unless you don't follow foreign affairs, our neighbour to the north has been under a conservative -- very conservative -- government for a bit of time now, with Conservative Party leader Stephen Harper serving as prime minister.

The most recent threat to personal privacy coming out of Ottawa is a bill that sounds frighteningly reminiscent of ones we've seen in the U.S.

The "Act to enact the Investigating and Preventing Criminal Electronic Communications Act and to amend the Criminal Code and other acts" would, among other abominable violations of civil liberties: