Bill C-51 passes in House of Commons
cbc.ca
cbc.ca
CSIS can now cancel our flights, freeze our bank accounts, and take down our web sites without any due process whatsoever, but don't worry, they need to get a secret court order against us in order to WAIVE our charter rights!
Encouraging someone to commit a terrorist act is now a crime. I expect this will be a very popular law for authorities use their new powers to exempt themselves from.
I'll be surprised if we make it a whole year before this is abused for some completely unrelated purpose such as harassing the administrations critics.
This will have real consequences for freedom of speech online. CSIS has been operating a huge mass surveillance system for a very long time, and today it just grew legal teeth.
I like how a single crooked judge can now covertly determine what is a free and democratic society. I mean, this was the case before but it had to happen in the public which had some sense of accountability.
In non-contested situations (eg: only the government is before the court, there is no opposition attorney) there would be no reason to bring up precedents that don't support the governments position.
This is part of the reason secret courts are so fundamentally wrong.
With the current government Canada is going downhill real fast. Sad, because it's one of the most socially developed countries.
The NDP win in Alberta has exactly nothing to do with federal politics. In fact, had Mulcair (the federal NDP leader) endorsed the Alberta NDP party it probably would have cost them a lot of votes. He is remembered for demonizing Alberta to cozy up to Quebec voters in the last federal election and remains wildly unpopular in Alberta.
Prentice and the Alberta PC's made a litany of key mistakes in rapid succession. Perhaps foremost was flouting their own legislation that "guaranteed" fixed election dates... again. Why was it too much this time? The PC's had just cut the head off the official opposition party by luring their leader (along with half it's MLA's) across the floor. While Prentice claimed he needed a new mandate for his budget, the true reason for this election's timing was obvious. They thought it would be a cakewalk because their opposition was in complete disarray. This is exactly the kind of election manipulation their own law was supposed to discourage.
The reason the NDP won the election is because voters had decided on "anyone but the PC's" and Rachel Notley was the only leader who didn't look like a clown in the leader's debate. Alberta isn't afraid of big-spending governments because that's precisely what the PC's were. They also expect the NDP to become a much more centrist, business friendly party now that they're in power. Mulcair might be walking with a bounce in his step right now, but he's going to be choking down a lot of sour news about what passes for NDP policy in the West soon enough.
As for federal politics... Harper has now been in power long enough that the West has gotten over feeling giddy about actually mattering in federal politics. A different party with a sound policy and a good leader could easily win a lot of ridings here if they took the province seriously. That means no nepotism, especially regarding the son of a leader famous for flipping the province the bird while riding right on through to the next province on the train. That means no parties that are too afraid to announce their platform. That means no parties that run garbage candidates. (In the last federal election, the NDP ran a grocery clerk from the other end of the province in my riding. She had never been to my city and refused to speak to media. She was nothing more than a name on a ballot.) No federal party that demonizes Alberta as a way of attacking Harper's background (even though he's from Toronto) is going to get a lot of votes here.
Finally, I'd just like to add that the liberals voted with the PC's to pass this bill. The NDP get no credit for opposing the bill because they'd oppose practically anything the other two parties were for.
However, the winds of change are here in Alberta. Not saying we'll vote overwhelmingly NDP in the federal election, but you could see some change. Country-wide, support for the Cons is wavering. They lose a few here, in BC, lose a bunch in Ontario (this is pretty much a given), and they could be in trouble.
Federally, there is only one conservative party and several viable opposition parties (mainly NDP and Liberal), so I wouldn't be surprised if the Conservatives win the next election, for exactly the same reason.
(approx) 57% of Americans believe in the devil, so this provision in the bill doesn't really fill me with any confidence :(
The terrorists and pedophiles are already on there anyway. And the powers that be can't do anything about it.
We seriously need more computer scientists in politics, or even better, we need computer sciences and technical literacy to be requirements for anyone getting a college degree, no matter what they're studying.
[0]: terrorist in quotes because I don't believe in the word. Terrorism is doublespeak, and it always has been.
But these laws obviously are not going to be effective. The people we have to worry about, the extremists, the perverts, the druggies, they're not able to be controlled anyway. What good is a law that locks someone's bank account and takes down someone's website when you don't know who they are and you don't know where their server is?
The point is: They're misinformed if they think this is actually going to thwart terrorism, or extremism, or communications of anyone who is actually discussing sensitive things. And they need to be educated, so that they can understand that.
I have to wonder though, does technical literacy or computer science training really cause a person to respect basic civil liberties?
The people who built the mass surveillance apparatus must be just as much a part of the technical community as anyone here.
Under C-51, you just broke the law if you are Canadian.
In the cold war days, everyone was racing to get the bomb. Nowadays, it seems everyone is racing to get the powers of mass surveillance.
However, if the government manages to control everything quickly - Putin-style - and then through the brain-washing mass-media manages to change the culture and make people believe that what they are doing is good and right, then yeah, you're screwed. Look at China - most people there seem to actually believe that "censorship works" in "keeping the society united" or whatever bullshit the government is feeding them.
That's the real danger. Not some random dictator coming to power. But a change of culture and beliefs in the population.
Can anything be done to influence the senate?
I know we can't govern by conscensus, but I think that when there is so much controversy around a law there should be a referendum, seems to work for Switzerland.
I don't agree 100% with any party. This issue is a good example, lots of people who would vote PC or Liberal in an election but would probably vote agaisnt Bill C-51 in a referendum.
What are the grounds to be considered a "radical website"?
I helped volunteer to build the Toronto Cryptoparty website, so this concerns me as a Canadian citizen. Especially as encryption becomes further villianized by the government and media.
http://www.parl.gc.ca/HouseChamberBusiness/ChamberVoteDetail...
I love how the liberals were saying they are for the bill but it requires some modification, and yet they all vote for it anyways.
If you can give me a logical reason why 38% gives you anywhere close to a majority mandate, especially one that is used to pass multiple dangerous omnibus bills, then I can recommend a great career for you at the CPC.
What they usually hear is "this bill will stop terrorism - well, that's good enough for me!" and don't research the issue any further.
Most people would especially be furious to learn that such bills don't in fact stop terrorism and they are just lied to so the governments gets more power. But because they don't have a good understanding of the issue themselves they just think that's just some "liberal propaganda trying to remove our small government (ironically) guys from power", or whatever.
Meanwhile the government has been spewing fear mongering propaganda since the Bill came out
Not with a bang but a whimper.
T. S. Eliot
Current Canadian politics summary: Stephen Harper.
They said they'd back it with modifications, no modifications were made, and they voted Yes anyways. What message he was trying to send to voters backing down so easily?
When was the last time that the monarch of the Governor General dissolved the assembly?
She was asked to make a decision, and sided with the government agaisnt the will of the majority of elected representative.
We will never know if she tried to do the right thing to save us from an election (saving money), or just tried not to make waves. We will never know what what would have been the result of an election had it happened in this particular condition.