For the second time this year, Public Safety Minister Vic Toews has
found himself at the centre of a major privacy backlash. In February,
Toews was the lead on Bill C-30, the Internet surveillance legislation
that sparked a huge public
outcry
that forced the government to shelve the bill within ten days. While
Toews maintains the legislation will return (and implausibly argues
that it could have assisted in the Magnotta investigation), it hasn't
moved in months.
The toxic connection between Toews and privacy escalated over the
weekend with a report
that Canada Border Services has installed surveillance equipment in the
Ottawa airport that will allow for eavesdropping on traveller
conversations. The report led to immediate questions in the House of
Commons with Toews defending the practices and even revealing
that the eavesdropping activities may be more extensive than initially
reported. A day later, Toews was backtracking, announcing
that the eavesdropping plans were on hold pending a review from the
Privacy Commissioner of Canada.
That's a start (the federal commissioner's office expressed
concern
that no privacy impact assessment (PIA) has been filed), but frankly it
isn't nearly good enough to address the privacy concerns associated
with this issue.
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Yesterday I posted
a series of questions regarding Canada's entry into the Trans Pacific
Partnership talks with the focus on whether the Canadian government
caved to U.S. conditions that Canada will not be able to reopen any
chapters where agreement has already been reached among the current
nine TPP partners and that it would not have "veto authority" over any
chapter. Prime Minister Stephen
Harper was asked
about the conditions at his press conference and after stating that
there were no substantive pre-conditions (at 5:10), admitted that "we
have agreed...there is an accession process so we don't disrupt the
negotiations...we're not going to try to undo what's been done." In
other words, the conditions of entry are now described as an accession
process that binds Canada to the already agreed-upon terms of the
agreement.
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Hours after Bill C-11 passed
third reading in the House of Commons (the bill receives second reading
in the Senate today), the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is already calling
for more reform. Expressing its support for Canada's entry into the
Trans Pacific Partnership talks, the Chamber argued
"issues still remain regarding Canadian policies on intellectual
property and supply management—which we believe the TPP negotiations
should address." Based on the leaked IP
chapter in the TPP, it seems likely that C-11 will do little to
ease the pressure to reform Canadian law.
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