Canadian internet might become less free

Any Canadians on tek syndicate? You should be concerned about this:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-cyberbullying-law-has-larger-agenda-expands-police-powers-1.2434797

There's a new bill that's been proposed to deal (ostensibly) with cyberbullying. The poster child for this of course is Amanda Todd, a teen who was bullied to the point of suicide. This bill would have a 5 year prison term for people who post nude pictures of other people without their consent. This, I'm fine with. The problem is the other stuff that they are sneaking into the bill.

The bill also gives "police heightened powers of surveillance to track terror suspects as well as individuals who use computer programs to gain unpaid access to WiFi or cable TV service". Somehow the "think of the children" vibe of this bill turns into "think of the terrorists" and "think of the cable companies". There are further provisions so that cable companies can turn over your information to the authorities without prosecution. This seems to me to be a nice quid-pro-quo relationship between the police and the cable companies, with regular Canadians losing out.

What can we do about something like this?

Canada is being a good slave to the US. They also turned down the takeover of BlackBerry by Lenovo because the US said so. It will only get worse.

Yeah that's what I figured. The article also mentioned allowing "Canadian police to gather evidence on individuals in Canada because a foreign state has requested it." I'm preeeetty that means you guys down south.

What makes this worse is that Bell Aliant is collecting all data on their network and they've been doing this since Nov 1st

Are we really legislating 5 year prison sentences for people who make others feel bad?

Yeah, this is a shitty deal... The entire reason Harper and the CONS need to get the boot in 2015. I'd actually prefer to see a Liberal/NDP coalition, but here in Canada 'coalition' is a dirty word... Maybe if we trick everyone and just call it cooperation instead? 

It's a tough thing to define. Personally I feel that if someone leaks nude photos of you then it's gone way beyond hurt feelings.

It comes down to trying to prove intent. There at least a couple dozen pictures of nude people on the internet.  So if the intent was to upset the person, that is already covered under current harassment laws.

How about none of the above.

I had to do an essay on this.

There's a rehtaeh parsons act in nova scotia, total rubbish.

I hope none of this bill gets passed... 

If I kill myself will they stop?

Meanwhile I thought we were okay because our representatives dealing with the TPP is pushing against the US' draconian demands. Got my hopes up too soon I guess.

  • I wonder do officials actually believe all that empty terror rhetoric, or is it just a talking point they use over and over because the people are stupid enough believe it ?
  • Do they believe that these new Internet castration laws are good, or are they just afraid to loose power and therefor want to destroy it on purpose ?
  • Is it malice or incompetence ?
  • Why do few people care when they get short changed ? How did we get democracy in first place in the light of such apathy, how does one change that.?