So remember that time that the government tried to pass a law that would grant telecoms immunity for handing Canadians’ private information over to government agencies without a warrant?
And remember how tens of thousands of outraged Canadians spoke out against the Bill and told the government that they don’t want their privacy invaded?
And remember how even the government’s hand-picked Privacy Commissioner — whose impartiality on privacy issues was, frankly, questionable — told the government that they should split the bill up to better review the constitutionality of the privacy clauses?
Privacy experts like Michael Geist, Jennifer Stoddart, and Ann Cavoukian and anti-cyberbullying advocates all spoke out against the bill — that ring a bell? Oh, oh, and then the Supreme Court ruled that the bill was unconstitutional and warrantless disclosure of private information was totally not cool? And then even Telus and Rogers agreed to stop handing private information over without a warrant because, you know, you should probably do what massive numbers of Canadians are telling you to do? Remember that? Because, apparently, Peter MacKay and his government doesn’t.
In keeping with the season, Bill C-13 has reared its ugly zombie head and is back from the grave. At least Peter MacKay knows how to celebrate Halloween. What he doesn’t seem to know how to do is listen to the overwhelming chorus of voices that is telling him to split this bill up, and remove the unpopular and unconstitutional online spying provisions.
Don’t believe me? Not only did the government reintroduce the bill, they even used a time allocation motion to cut short today’s debate, preventing MPs from having their first opportunity to discuss the implications of last June’s historic, unanimous Supreme Court ruling. It’s clear this government just isn’t listening to Canadians.
So that’s the bad news. But don’t despair, your OpenMedia team is ready to fight back. In fact, because we’re wicked fast, today we’re launching a radio ad in Peter MacKay’s Central Nova riding letting residents know about Bill C-13 and his government’s reckless online spying agenda. Give it a listen below, and if you like what you hear, or if you’re just keen to let Peter MacKay and the government know that this is getting ridiculous, help us get more radio play by donating!
We want this radio ad to reach as far and wide as possible, and we can only do it with the help of grassroots donations, so do give us a hand if you have a few bucks to spare. Imagine Peter MacKay riding home after a long parliamentary session trying to pass online spying bills, looking forward to having a nice glass of lemonade on the porch and thinking about all the sweet metadata his government will soon have their hands on, and our radio ad starts playing on his sound system. Pretty sweet, right? Help us make that dream come true.
With your support, we’ll keep up the fight against online spying until we win. Let’s keep speaking up, Canada!
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Nick Seebruch, editor
