OTTAWA - Justice Minister Rob Nicholson says legislation that would give police and spies easier access to information about Internet users is simply an attempt to bring the law into the 21st century.
He rejects NDP warnings that the bill threatens to turn Canada into a surveillance society.
Nicholson says the proposed changes will give police and security services the tools they need to deal with sophisticated cyber-criminals expert in hiding themselves on the Internet.
He says the new bill, tabled today, strikes a balance between giving the police new tools and protecting privacy rights.
It would also require telecommunication service providers to have the technical capability to allow authorities to intercept messages and conversations.
The Opposition NDP says the bill opens the door to snooping and police fishing expeditions.
"We are against this bill and we will fight this bill all the way," said New Democrat MP Charlie Angus. "Canadians are not criminals."
Nicholson said there are protections built into the proposed legislation.
"It will put in place safeguards to protect the privacy of Canadians," he said during a news conferences at Ottawa police headquarters.
The bill would allow authorities access to Internet subscriber information — including name, address, telephone number and email address — without first getting a court's go-ahead.
The proposed measures pit the desire of intelligence and law-enforcement officials to have ready access to information about people online against the individual's right to privacy.
At a news conference following the bill's tabling, Angus said the measures would give police a licence to go on fishing expeditions.
Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart and her provincial and territorial counterparts have publicly expressed concerns about a previous, similar incarnation of the legislation that died on the order paper.
When a Liberal MP asked Monday about the latest version, Public Safety Minister Vic Toews said he could either stand with the government or with child pornographers prowling online.
Opposition MPs have denounced the minister's comments as an insult to those who care about civil liberties.
"I say to Vic Toews, 'Stop hiding behind the bogeyman. Stop using the bogeyman to attack the basic rights of Canadian citizens'," said Angus.
"I think Vic Toews has besmirched his reputation as a minister."
Green party Leader Elizabeth May said the minister's comments were an attack on those who support the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
"You're the worst form of scum if you believe the charter's an important instrument for the rule of law in this country," she said Monday.
"I'm horrified by this kind of rhetoric. It demeans us all."
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the real ODB
14 weeks ago
PLEASE!!!
Get rid of these fascist swine! Pathetic. The lot of them.
meadow
14 weeks ago
surveillance law
I felt physically ill this morning when I heard about this new proposed legislation. Now that these people have a majority there will be no end to the erosion of everything we on the left (or even in the middle) hold dear. Will we draw a line in the sand now? Or will we wait until drawing a line in the sand is made illegal?
cdn
14 weeks ago
Fascist Tactics
"The state must declare the child to be the most precious treasure of the people. As long as the government is perceived as working for the benefit of the children, the people will happily endure almost any curtailment of liberty and almost any deprivation"
-Adolf Hitler in Mein Kampf
igbymac
14 weeks ago
Contempt for us all
Obviously you must be a fcuking idiot to reach the Ministerial level in Canadian politics.
It's sickening to see such pathological behaviour parading as the norm, propagandised as insight.
lowball
14 weeks ago
Pathetic
Would you trust buying a used car from these people? A tad late in coming, but it looks like 1984 is upon us. Harpo has gone way over the top on this one. For those who voted for these POS, thanks a lot.
zalm
14 weeks ago
not to worry
The very design of the internet will make this law obsolete sometime around the middle of next week. There will be tools to bypass the surveillance of the telcos and others to tunnel through police data-gathering pickets without notice, and doubtless the charge will be led by the "pornographers", whatever they are.
Within a couple of years, the only people being regularly caught and prosecuted by this law will be elderly coupon-clippers who will be arrested and detained for illegally duplicating coupons for half-price dog food in contravention of the state's new copyright laws.
And in another seventy years, some notorious politician will come to power promising to repeal any unneeded and obsolete legislation such as the requirement for a man with a red flag to walk in front of a motor vehicle so as to prevent accidents by warning pedestrians of its approach - one of a variety of similar laws that were not repealed in more distant parts of America until the 1940s...
crankypants
14 weeks ago
By the time
By the time the next federal election rolls around Canadians will be enjoying the same freedoms afforded the people of North Korea.
This bill will be able to be utilized to identify and intimidate any people or groups that oppose anything Harper & Co. deem against Canada's interests whether those interests are real or imagined.
Dan the socialist
14 weeks ago
I guess trying to get the
I guess trying to get the courts to 'stop this' somehow, if they even can is the only option.
I sure hope the people that voted Harper are happy....
**By the time the next federal election rolls around Canadians will be enjoying the same freedoms afforded the people of North Korea.**
No doubt, I wonder if we will even have elections by then....
DPL
14 weeks ago
Harper has a collection of
Harper has a collection of control freaks with him in his party.Everyone else is a potential enemy. If they want to check by internet use, go get a judge to sign to allow it. They know they wouldn't get such authority, so are ramming through some pretty stupid legislation. A judge over turned one a couple of days ago. We won't need more jails, we will need more judges to keep the conservative morons off our backs
Robert Rogers
14 weeks ago
Time to Register Your Complaint
Most informed people realize we are now living in a police state. Despite that fact we still have the right to protest and if we'd like change we had better get at it! One place to start is here: openmedia.ca/lockdown
Send them your message!
If you snooze you will lose a lot more than your Internet security.
jimmmmy
14 weeks ago
security
the definition of canadian under king steve, " a creature that is so constructed that when confronted by authority of any kind will immediately present it's arse." the facist take over of canada is complete.
snert
14 weeks ago
The fascinating thing
about this whole debacle is just the difference a warrant makes. All the same capabilities are in place that are necessary to do the job. Your privacy can be invaded just as thoroughly but it requires a warrant before the fact and not after.
If they're so damned worried about kiddie pornographers then it's better to leave things as they are. It leads to a false sense of security which allows the stupid ones to get picked off often leading to much bigger fish. Tighten the rules too much and everything will be driven underground so deep it will be hard to find but it will still be there and maybe worse. Just MHO
OwlRol
14 weeks ago
More than a privacy issue
Mostly correct by all commenters so far.
But there is a deeper issue of democratic checks and balances between the three branches of government, that this Harper government pays lip service to, yet mostly ignores. But it is at the core of our so called responsible government.
Harpo legitimately (given our political and legal systems) gained control of the executive branch, and as PM, went on to dominate the legislative branch by first stacking the Senate with his lapdog appointments and then winning the House of Commons, false majority in the last FPTP election. No rules broken (sort of).
But, as much as criminal law, court and penal procedures and rationalle really need serious upgrading, touted by Harpo's "tough on crime" agenda, that and privacy problems are not the real underlying issue.
First, the implementation of mandatory minimum sentencing and second, executive branches like CESIS, the RCMP or other police units' new abilities to investigate/spy on individuals' personal information, without a judge or justice of the peace issuing a warrant, both of these items appear to be incremental moves to sideline or depower the judicial branch. Their thoughts and decisions on individual sentencing cases, as well as the issuing of warrants, are no longer relevant, surely warping the balance.
And then there's all the privacy commissioners being ignored by this federal government. Lets not get into Harpo's vindictive logic here. We still have the supreme court of Canada for now.
Without the checks and balances, rather than domination, of all three branches of government, we can justify, beyond simple rhetoric, a major and dangerous shift toward totalitarian government.
It's easy to state that our government is in the pocket of big corporate entities, and with the obvious focus of privacy vs. security, imagined or not, this crucial attack on another aspect of balanced democratic government seems to have been neglected here and by most of the media.
But it is a fundamental footing now under somewhat covert attack, on which all the rest depends.
Regardless of critisism of the judicial branch, including the facade of democracy, we cannot let this piece of the system be dismantled, or we really are in very big trouble. Sino regulations, here we come.
Hakuin
14 weeks ago
good for the goose
https://twitter.com/#!/vikileaks30
cboo44
13 weeks ago
Want to read my emails? Get a warrant.
'Nuf said.
sicntired
11 weeks ago
They have the tools
They just don't want to do the work.Far easier to make it easier to spy on people.To look wherever they want even if they don't have enough evidence to convince a judge to issue a warrant.I think we all know that the police have their pet judges that they go to for warrants.If they won't even do the minimal work to convince them,they just want the right to spy on everyone.Who knows what they might stumble on to?Perhaps if they did their job instead of taking away our rights we wouldn't look at them as the enemy.We have been cedeing our right steadily since 2001.The police have taken terrorism and run with it as far as it will take them.Fear has been the way politicians have controlled people forever.I have never seen anything like the way we as a society have been controlled and bled of basic rights out of fear.