IS THAT THE RCMP OVER YOUR SHOULDER?

BY RISHI HARGOVAN

In the name of national security, the Canadian government is trying to expand its domestic surveillance powers. Public Safety Canada, the agency in charge of the RCMP and CSIS, has circulated a consultation document proposing that police and national security agencies be given the authority to obtain phone and internet users’ personal information from telecom companies—without requiring a court order. Currently there is no legislation setting out the rules, as a bill dealing with the issue died when the last Liberal government fell. Telecom companies are reticent to make the information available and privacy watchdogs, who have yet to be consulted by the government, feel the new powers are unjustified. Critics also fear the new bill will include a provision, from its last version, requiring telecoms to install technology that would make eavesdropping easier.

CTV News goes inside with the proposed changes and what critics say are the plan’s shortcomings. The main concern is that without judicial oversight, the limits on police power are ineffective. “We know from history that the more powers you give law enforcement agencies and the government, the [more] potential there is for abuse,” Philippa Lawson, of the Canadian Internet Public Policy Interest Centre, told CTV. The Citizen fronts and the Post go inside with the government’s impromptu decision, as the story broke yesterday, to open up and extend the limited legislative consultation process that left civil liberties and privacy groups feeling deliberately excluded. It’s clear that six years after the attacks of September 11, Canada is still trying to find a balance between public safety and individual rights. In the wake of the government’s use of national security to justify censorship of embarrassing portions of the Maher Arar report, MediaScout wonders if Canadians are ready to give law enforcement agencies carte blanche to govern themselves, and hopes that the Big Seven will give these issues the airing they deserve.