Archive for June, 2012

Internet Domain Name Land Grab More Than Just “Fools Gold”

gtld expansion Appeared in the Toronto Star on June 17, 2012 as Internet Domain Name Land Grab More Than Just “Fools Gold” Last week, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the California-based non-profit corporation charged with the principal responsibility for maintaining the Internet’s domain name system, revealed […]

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June 21, 2012 Comments are Disabled Columns Archive

European Parliament’s INTA Committee Votes to Reject ACTA

The European Parliament’s INTA committee, the lead committee studying the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, has voted to reject ACTA. The 19-12 vote against the agreement means that all five EP committees that studied ACTA voted against ratification. I appeared before the INTA committee’s workshop on ACTA earlier this year and submitted […]

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June 21, 2012 Comments are Disabled News

Canadian Privacy Gets Toews-ed Again: Why a PIA on Airport Eavesdropping Isn’t Good Enough

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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June 20, 2012 8 comments News

Canada Appears to Cave to U.S. Conditions to Join TPP Talks

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 […]

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June 20, 2012 8 comments News

Day After C-11 Passes, U.S. Chamber Looking For More Canadian Copyright Reform

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 […]

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June 20, 2012 4 comments News