Stop Bill C-13, Ottawa’s latest assault on privacy

Scan page 11

SOCIALIST ACTION JUNE 2014 11 “Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t after you.”* It would be exceedingly easy to fall in to the techno-libertarian trap and think that (a) privacy is dead and that (b) per­ sonal information is a commodity and therefore should be controlled by mar­ kets. Both statements are factually wrong and are ideologically deeply rooted in the neo-liberal state. Privacy is a fundamen­ tal requirement for people to freely com­ municate, associate, and organize.

It would also be easy to fall into the trap of thinking that information technology and electronic communications are in­ herently progressive, because they are relatively cheap and allow activists to islation. communicate widely at a low cost. This is the ‘Internet routes around censorship’ fallacy.

Successive Liberal and Conservative governments have tried to pass “law­ ful access” legislation since at least late 2005.** Lawful access is shorthand for legal rules to allow police investigators to gain access to subscriber and other information held by telecommunications and Internet Service Providers without a warrant. Despite repeated demands for proof to show how requirements for a warrant and due process have prevent­ ed an investigation, neither the Liberals nor the Conservatives have been able to demonstrate a need for this type of leg­ Readers may recall former federal Con­ servative Minister of Public Safety Vic Toews’ bleating, “you’re with the child pornographers or with us”. That was about Bill C-30 in 2013. This year’s ver­ sion of the bill is disguised as an anticyberbullying piece of legislation, C-13. When this persistent attempt to gain new legal powers to look at Canadians’ com­ munications is combined with the Ed­ ward Snowden revelations about Cana­ da’s participation in the Five Eyes spying program, the conclusion is inescapable: Whatever differences they might have, the Liberals and the Conservatives are agreed that all Canadians are suspects until proven otherwise.

The cumulative affect of such state sur­ veillance is to create a “chilling affect” in which people are unwilling to express opinions outside the prevailing view of the day. This stifles dissent, inhibits ac­ tivism, and ultimately narrows the per­ ceived choices that people have to pro­ test or organize.

Progressives should not mistake pri­ vacy as a ‘liberal’ civil right. Privacy, in­ cluding the right to communicate and to organize free from the prying eyes of the state, is fundamental to the building of a social movement. Violations of pri­ vacy, such as the authorities’ knowing to whom you talk and e-mail (the so-called metadata we hear so much about) enable the state to block, disrupt, or ultimately destroy the lives of everyone caught up in the surveillance sweep. n

Scan page 12

SOCIALIST ACTION