… was supposed to be a warning about police states.

Not an instruction manual on how to set one up!

The Canadian Border Services Agency told The Ottawa Citizen that unidentified sites at airports and borders are already equipped with audio-video monitoring to boost security. The audio technology, though installed, is not recording just yet.

“It will become functional at a later date,” a CBSA spokesman said.

When it does, the technology “will record conversations,” a CBSA said in a statement to The Ottawa Citizen.

Man… this is scary. Exactly how far is too far?

Why stop at airports? Why not malls? Buses? Coffee shops?

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Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario

… should fear Bill C-30!

Here I am on my morning commute going through downtown Ottawa and reading about how Vic Toews is called opponents to the Bill supporters of child porn.

Huh?

…here we go again…

In case you haven’t been following this (and you should have been!):

Bill C-30 includes, as CBC.ca reports online: requiring telecommunications and Internet providers to give up subscriber data, including name, address, mobile phone number and IP address (your online ID). And that’s before they get a warrant.

The bill also forces tech providers to provide police with a “back door” for easy surveillance. It also lets police get warrants to track any information sent online, who sent it and from where, and will let courts force other parties to preserve electronic evidence.

This last one rather sums up the terror of this new law. While we anguish over Facebook and Google’s increasingly blatant use and storage of our online lives, we’re blind to the ultimate destination of this information. It can now go straight to the cop who asks for it. As the NDP’s Charlie Angus put it, it gives the police a licence for fishing expeditions into all “private communications,” the all-inclusive term used in the bill. Cellphones would become an “electronic prisoner’s bracelet,” Angus said.

And now they have, at the last-minute, renamed the legislation to pander to the fear and disgust with child porn.

In fact, neither Toews nor the police can come up with examples of where the current legislation has interfered with or prevent the police from pursuing and prosecuting child pornographers. Not one.

I have written about this before. As have many others, like the Squid, who correctly notes:

The day this legislation gets royal assent, you can bet that police forces all over the country, starting with the RCMP will start building files on Canadians.  Innocent Canadians.  Not child pornography users (that’s the “appeal to emotion” that the government is using to try to drum up support), but regular people whom someone in authority doesn’t agree with.  People like me, who are writing this anti-government article.  University students in Montreal.  People with non-Anglo-Saxon names.  Basically anyone that they feel like can have their internet stuff trolled through without warrant, just because.

You betcha. I would like to think that those in authority would use this legislation wisely. But they won’t. Historically, if police forces have access to power. They. Will. Use. It.

Take that to the bank.

I just listened to Toews being interviewed by Hallie Cotnam this morning as he was trying to defend the Bill on Ottawa Morning… he is calling up the conspiracy ghosts again – calling efforts against the Bill as concerted and targeted by special interests.

Sound familiar?

Meanwhile, this father of 3 who despises and is sickened by child pornography will nonetheless continue to oppose this Bill… and fight for the ouster of every single Con who votes in favour of it at the last election. And I know some conservatives who will be joining me.

Of course, we are not only accused of being in league with child pornographer, but, as Kinsella notes, opponents are also likely to be a:

Atheist
God Hater
Child Hater — remember it is always about the children
Rural Canada Hater
Outdoor Sportsman Hater
Tim Hortons Hater
An Oil Sands Hater
Witch Lover
CBC Lover
Lover of the Arts
Book Lover
Statistics Canada apologist
A Baby Seal Lover
A United Nations Lover

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Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario

This does NOT give me warm and fuzzy feelings…

‘The public has nothing to fear with this legislation and the way the police will use this legislation. It really comes down to a case of common sense and officer discretion.’— Sgt. Tim Burrows of the G8/G20 Integrated Security Unit

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Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario

And the sign said anybody caught trespassing would be shot on sight
So I jumped on the fence and yelled at the house, Hey! what gives you the right
To put up a fence to keep me out or to keep mother nature in
Signs – 5 Man Electrical Band

Almost complete are the conversions of two different Ontario communities into armed fortresses that would make even Kim Il Jong blush.

Huntsville and Toronto are very, very different types of communities – aside from the fact that many from the latter like to spend their summers in and around the former – the two are as different as night and day. Small town Ontario versus the Big Smoke. Urban versus rural. Natural environment versus built environment.

But over the next little while, these two communities have something very much in common. Something that up until recently, would have been unthinkable in the country.

They are full-fledged, razor wired, jack-booted police states.

I mean, what else can you call them?

Both are ringed with a 3 metre high fence that will be defended by fully armed and outfitted police officers recruited from the RCMP, OPP and the Metre Toronto boyz and girlz in blue. They have been specially trained in the use of anti-riot weapons like water cannons, sonic cannons, tasers, whips, batons, big guns, small guns, tear gas and effective noogy giving.

At first, the chattering was all about the threat of terrorism and hence the need for massive security.  Since terrorism is no longer a “threat”, we should not be too surprised that Day and the other Harperites are now characterizing all protesters as “anarchists and thugs”.  Thus the reason for this incredible and unprecedented armed presence on the streets of T.O. and in the bush around Huntsville. The ReformCons have to say something to warrant the ONE BEEL-LEE-ON dollars being spent on the establishment of the police state.

Sure, there will be some protesters in Toronto (there may be some in Huntsville too, but the main throng will be where they can garner the most media coverage) who are not there to exercise their democratic rights of free expression and assembly in a peaceful and meaningful way. There will be those who are there simply to cause trouble, mayhem and madness and to damage property.

But surely they can be identified fairly quickly and dealt with in an appropriate way? There are, like, thousands of cops and other security personnel, after all! They don’t do advance reconnaissance to identify individuals who may pose a threat? There isn’t a list somewhere?

I find that hard to believe.

Nope – the powers-that-be WANT disruption so they can point to it and say:

“We told you so! All of that money spent on fences, cops, cannons and razor wire was so WORTH it!”

The folks that I do feel sorry for are those in Huntsville and T.O. for whom this whole thing is a nightmare of epic proportions. I even feel sorry for the Bay Street lawyers!

Naw. That’s going too far.

I’ve been keeping an eye on the Torontoist - which is keeping a running tab on what the Gee-Score is ruining or making a mess of.

I’m sure everyone is thanking you, Stevo! From the tourism operators in Muskoka to the LCBO employees in downtown Toronto. Thanks a BILLION!

And all for a photo op…

Well, how is this for a photo op?

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Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario

Darin over at the Squid Zone and I don’t always agree on things. He’s a bit to the right politically and I veer to the left. He’s more supportive of armies and wars and stuff and I’m a confirmed peacenik.  But hey, we always have a good yuk at tearing up each other’s positions or giving kudos when due.

And this post exemplifies one of the latter.  The Squid Dude has pushed a few dollars over to the Conservative table once in a while it seems. In the past he has felt this to be a worthy contribution to a party that has shared some of his political orientations.

Not now it seems.

Like the Squid, I’m more than a little freaked out about Bills C-46 and 47… the Bills that I affectionately refer to as the Orwellian bitchin’ legislation.

The gist of the words is this:  any police force in the country will have the legal means to ask for and receive any communications – electronic or paper – from anyone to anyone. Without prior consent or cause.

Without cause.

Kinda like the arbitrary breathalyzer legislation being proposed…

As the cephalopod puts it:

Your postal mail has about the same general level of privacy as your internet traffic.  So imagine the government proposes legislation that permits them, without warrant, to require Canada Post, Federal Express, UPS, DHL, and so forth to provide customer information whenever someone claiming to be a peace officer asks for it.  Furthermore, they require those companies to install the equipment and procedures to allow them to intercept your mail and packages at a moments notice when requested, without a warrant.  Further still, they retain the right to OPEN and READ all the packages and mail, without warrant, just because they want to.  Unacceptable?  I should think so.  There’s a reason we have a process that involves warrants and the police explaining themselves to a judge.

Sorry. Don`t trust the cops as it is and giving them even more arbitrary power sends shivers up my spine.

Write someone, folks.

Or, if you are a CPC member who is being asked for more money, do the following:

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Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario