Peter MacKay’s “Online Spying” Bill C-13 will enable authorities to monitor the private lives of innocent Canadians, without any real oversight.
It will give telecom providers legal immunity for handing over your private information to the government without a warrant and without any oversight.
That means people harmed wouldn’t even have the right to sue.
Victims of these privacy breaches wouldn’t even be informed — that means the government could spy on anyone, at anytime, and you wouldn’t even know when you’ve been a victim.
C-13 is hugely unpopular: 73 per cent of Canadians oppose Bill C-13, with just 15 per cent approving. There is huge opposition among all regions, age groups, genders, and income levels.
Conservatives oppose Bill C-13 by 62 per cent to 24 per cent.
The government is misleading Canadians when it says Bill C-13 is about cyberbullying.
It only includes a couple of pages about cyberbullying, along with 65 pages lifted from Vic Toews’ hugely unpopular spying bill C-13 which was abandoned after Canadians spoke out.
The government recently cut Parliamentary debate on C-13 short, showing it is running scared of Canadians, including thousands of its own supporters who are speaking out against online spying.
The Bill was rammed through the House of Commons and will soon be voted on by the Senate. The Senate prides itself on being a chamber of sober second thought, and if ever a Bill needed a sober rethink it’s this one.
The Supreme Court of Canada recently ruled that warrantless government requests for private information are unconstitutional.
As things stand, C-13 effectively encourages unconstitutional behaviour.
It would be reckless and irresponsible for Parliament to pass C-13 in its current form, especially as it could cost Canadian taxpayers millions to defend in the courts.
Privacy is a fundamental right in any healthy democracy.
I encourage Canadians to learn more about how we can work together to safeguard our privacy at OurPrivacy.ca
Rhys Gerow
Nelson