Have you heard? Steve and his Conservatives want to be our big brothers! Isn't this wonderful?! I've always dreamed of having a big brother, but I didn't think it would ever be possible. He could teach me about girls and buy me booze, while I could bug him and his older friends at every chance I get! We'd go to the park ... play sports and such ... man, it would be GREAT!
And now what was previously unthinkable could become a reality. Big bro Steve. Imagine it. When I'm being picked on in the school yard I can say things like:
Hey, you guys'd better stop! I'll get my big brother to beat you up! Do you know who he is? He's our supreme master. Our overlord. Our Lord and Saviour. He's Steven Harper!What a world it will be.
Confused?
The Conservatives have tabled two new bills (last Thursday, I believe) aimed at updating the way law enforcement interacts with Internet Service Providers (ISPs, obviously). The reasoning behind this is to catch pedophiles, terrorists and criminals, and that's a good thing. I'd like to highlight two aspects, however:
Part of one of the bills would require all ISPs to update their infrastructure so their network supports interception (read: it must be possible to monitor the traffic of anyone using the internet in Canada). While I don't see this as being a huge privacy problem, I'm not sure I feel good about it, but I felt it was worth a mention.
Part of the other bill would give law enforcement access to the personal information of any subscriber (name, location, websites) without a warrant. Allow me to emphasize that last bit:
Of this, I am absolutely certain of how I feel. I don't like it ... I don't think it's a good thing to allow law enforcement the freedom to monitor us without any justification. As I said, I don't like it.WITHOUT A WARRANT
BUT, any amount of basic privacy is totally worth giving up to get a big brother like Steve! So bring it on Conservatives, watch me like a hawk. It'll all be worth it when Stephen messes up my hair and says something like: "You're alright kid".
