Against Online Surveillance? You Must Be 'For' Child Porn, Says Legislator 583
An anonymous reader writes "Following up on yesterday's story about the Canadian government's internet surveillance legislation, one of the bill's proponents is now accusing those who oppose it of standing with child pornographers. Those against the legislation include: Law professor Michael Geist, Open Media, the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, the Council of Canadians and many others. 'Public Safety Minister Vic Toews told a Liberal MP he could either stand with the government or "with the child pornographers" prowling online.' Toews is enjoying his Parliamentary Privilege, which grants him the freedom to say pretty much anything he wants without fear of a slander suit."
Sent to the PM and related MPs (Score:5, Informative)
Sent to Ralph Goodale (my MP), Stephen Harper (PM of Canada), and Vic Toews (the jackboot who insultingly claims I support child pornography because I won't kiss his ass):
How to explain the law to a non-techie (Score:5, Informative)
The proposed bill is like the Government of Canada forcing the phone companies to keep a record of every call that you make or receive, and insisting that Canada Post keep a register of every piece of mail that you send or receive. They'd still need a warrant to actually open your mail, but they don't need anyone's permission to build a profile of who you correspond with including who, how often, at what time of day etc...
The minister has gone on record to say that if you don't want the government to have a complete list of the letters you send through the mail, then you support child pornography. There is apparently no middle ground.
Now take the phone/mail analogy and replace it with everything that you do online - all the websites you visit, Facebook posts you make and emails you send. If you think that's a reasonable limit on your freedom then you should support the bill. If you don't want the government poking around your history file then you should let them know.
Re:Come on! (Score:5, Informative)
Hypocrisy and Blunt Force Law Making (Score:4, Informative)
While there is wide opposition to the bill in Canada, including every province's privacy commissioner, the federal government's privacy commissioner, and many people across party lines, with a majority in parliament the conservatives will ram this law through faster than Justice Minister Vic Toews (pronounced taze... like tazer) ramming a mistress [blogspot.com]. They have a track record of cutting off debate they don't like. Meanwhile, the government currently has the ability to get access to this information, as long as they first obtain a warrant from a judge.
This is the government that shut down the federal gun registry and eliminated the long form census based on privacy concerns. The hypocrisy is not surprising considering it is well known the publicly 'devout' Christian justice minister (and unofficial "Minister of Family Values") introducing the bill is divorced as a result of keeping a decades younger mistress with whom he fathered a child and at least one documented case of conflict of interest. Needless to say, the various privacy commissioners and opposition Members of Parliament are not amused at being classified as pedophiles (since they are against the government on this one), and several have stated this [winnipegfreepress.com]: ' "Apparently, if you care about civil liberties in this country you obviously side with child pornographers, murderers," she (Green party Leader Elizabeth May) said.'
So non-Canadians understand, in the Canadian system of government, the leader of a party has final say on who can run for the party in each riding (district in American vernacular). And he/she has the ability to kick elected members out of the party. If you aren't in a party the rules allow you almost no right to speak in the house in order to give your opinion, or ask questions of the government in question period. In other words, you have little ability to represent your riding. You must vote as you are told or be ostracized. And any party member who works with you will face the same penalty. This means that since the conservatives have a majority in the house and the senate, this law will be passed regardless on how Canadians feel about it. Personally I think the Canadian system is flawed and only avoided these kinds of issues by luck in the past. Now that parties are exploiting these democratic inadequacies, the whole thing is going downhill fast.
Re:They doth protest too much (Score:2, Informative)
+1 insightful
Re:Come on! (Score:5, Informative)
And conversely, most Texans have never been outside their own state. And despite being dead last in education, dead last in civilization, and dead last in culture, for some reason most of them don't WANT to leave their own state and think everywhere else is a "librul hellhole."
Hell, they even think they invented barbeque... when it turns out it was imported to Europe (as barbacoa) from the Caribbean and traveled to the Americas with Spanish and French settlers. Not only that, but Texas barbecue is universally a dry, tasteless mess that is only edible by slathering it with a ton of sauce.
Re:what burns me is (Score:2, Informative)
There are more then a couple embarrassing full nude pictures in the parents photo albums of plenty of us as kids, running around the house after discarding diapers or in the bath with our siblings playing with action figures, battleships, etc as parents make you wash that aren't pornography in any way. So even just "fully nude" could be a pretty overly broad definition.
Re:Come on! (Score:3, Informative)
The Democrats are our conservative party. The Republicans are the batshit insane one.
Re:Come on! (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Come on! (Score:4, Informative)
I'm sad to see the parent poster marked down - this comment was dead-on accurate. Far too many Texans are far too filled with hubris regarding their own state, and very little regard for their fellow states in the USA or the nations of the rest of the world.
Hell, their own brain-damaged governor actually started up secession talk when he was pandering to the Tea Party fringe.
The number of wack-job falsehoods that get tossed around by Texans - including that "they're the only state allowed to fly their flag at equal height to the US flag [wikipedia.org]", that they somehow reserved the right to secede [usnews.com], or that Texas somehow had an economic miracle based on "conservatism" that sheltered it from the recent recession [time.com] (that third one being more full of manure than your average rancher's livestock pens) - are absolutely insane. And yet they keep on believing them and not realizing that maybe Texas isn't the greatest thing since sliced bread... sigh.
Re:Child pornography is not an excuse (Score:3, Informative)
There is no jailbait forum. There never was. It's just slander from mincing pedophiles.