Opposition MPs and critics of the online-surveillance bill tabled by the government of Stephen Harper lashed out at the Conservatives on Tuesday, after Public Safety Minister Vic Toews caused outrage on Monday by referring to opponents of the bill as siding with child pornographers. During Question Period on Tuesday, NDP MP Charlie Angus said the government was setting out to “snoop and spy” on average Canadians, while Interim Liberal Leader Bob Rae asked the Prime Minister whether the alleged friends of pedophiles included the provincial privacy commissioners who wrote an open letter to Toews last year criticizing the bill. In addition to concerns about police being able to obtain information on Internet users without a warrant, the Ontario Privacy Commissioner, Ann Cavoukian, also raised the issue of the bill requiring Internet service providers (including Rogers, which owns Maclean’s) and websites to collect and store users’ data, which, she said, could create a “Fort Knox of information” for hackers and criminals to prey on. It’s an issue Maclean’s blogger and TVO host Jesse Brown also pointed to on Tuesday. An online petition against the bill has already collected close to 90,000 signatures. Steve Anderson, the executive director of OpenMedia.ca, which organized the Stop Online Spying petition in May, compared the effects of the bill to the Orwellian online surveillance practiced by the governments of Syria and China.
Opposition MPs and critics of the online-surveillance bill tabled by the government of Stephen Harper lashed out at the Conservatives on Tuesday, after Public Safety Minister Vic Toews caused outrage on Monday by referring to opponents of the bill as siding with child pornographers. During Question Period on Tuesday, NDP MP Charlie Angus said the government was setting out to “snoop and spy” on average Canadians, while Interim Liberal Leader Bob Rae asked the Prime Minister whether the alleged friends of pedophiles included the provincial privacy commissioners who wrote an open letter to Toews last year criticizing the bill. In addition to concerns about police being able to obtain information on Internet users without a warrant, the Ontario Privacy Commissioner, Ann Cavoukian, also raised the issue of the bill requiring Internet service providers (including Rogers, which owns Maclean’s) and websites to collect and store users’ data, which, she said, could create a “Fort Knox of information” for hackers and criminals to prey on. It’s an issue Maclean’s blogger and TVO host Jesse Brown also pointed to on Tuesday. An online petition against the bill has already collected close to 90,000 signatures. Steve Anderson, the executive director of OpenMedia.ca, which organized the Stop Online Spying petition in May, compared the effects of the bill to the Orwellian online surveillance practiced by the governments of Syria and China.