One of the major unanswered questions about Bill C-30, the lawful
access/online surveillance bill, is who will pay for the costs
associated with responding to law enforcement demands for subscriber
information ("look ups") and installation of surveillance equipment
("hook ups"). Christopher Parsons has an excellent
post that takes a shot at estimating some of the costs. I recently
obtained documents
from Public Safety under
the Access to Information Act that indicates that the government
doesn't really have its own answer. As of December 2011, the issue was
still the subject of internal debate with Public Safety working with
the RCMP and CSIS to develop a fee schedule for the costs.
The document
is particularly interesting because it places the
spotlight on how the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police (CACP)
would like to handle the issue. In 2009, the CACP proposed
several possibilities, including the creation of new public safety tax
that would appear on monthly customer bills. The CACP adopted the
position that law enforcement should not have to pay for the associated
costs claming it "brings the administration of justice into
disrepute." Instead, it proposed three alternatives:
- the telecom companies and Internet providers could pass along the
costs in the form of a "public safety tariff" that would apply on
monthly consumer bills
- the government could provide tax credits to telecom companies and
Internet providers
- the government could establish a federal funding pool to cover
the costs
The government rejected all three possibilities, but incredibly does
not seem to have its own plan to address the tens of millions of
dollars in costs created by its online surveillance plans. As I noted
in a post
on fixing the bill, both the regulations and the cost issues
should be made public before the bill is considered by a House of
Commons committee.
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The Globe reports
on a new BC poll that finds that a strong majority of provincial
residents oppose Bill C-30. The report indicates 73% oppose the online
surveillance bill and 55% strongly oppose it.
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Great,
great TED talk from Rob Reid on the funny numbers often promoted by
music and movie lobby groups in the context of copyright.
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