The Canadian federal government is re-introducing a “lawful access” bill that will give police the ability to get certain information about us from our Internet Service Providers without a warrant.  It will also require anyone who offers telecommunications services to build in a backdoor to give police access for wiretap purposes.

This bill is an affront to privacy and should not be passed.  For some insight into the details and why it is a bad idea, and links to other material take a look at:

• David Fraser’s post
• Michael Geist’s post
• Ontario Privacy Commissioner Ann Cavoukian’s CBC interview

And sign the online petition at Open media.ca

And by the way, I’m tired of the political rhetoric and hyperbole that surrounds so much proposed legislation.  Public Safety Minister Vic Toews has been widely quoted as responding to an opposition question on the bill by saying  ”He can either stand with us or with the child pornographers”.    Really?  We deserve better than that.

The laws that govern us deserve rational debate and intelligent discussion about why they are needed, whether the proposals will help address that, what the collateral damage might be, whether the benefits are worth the costs, etc.