Warning to Canadians! Any Canuck who uses the Internet to download, upload, share, look at, or even search for anything which is incorrect -- legally, morally, politically, or otherwise -- should be very, very afraid. The Conservative government of "Call me Steve" Harpoon has reintroduced the "Investigative Powers for the 21st Century" bill.
If enacted -- and given the Tory majority in Canada's Parliament this is almost a certainty -- the ultimate "snoop and spy" law will require Internet service providers to install surveillance technology on their networks. They, and such portals and search engines as Google and Yahoo!, will be obliged to tell the police and other "authorities" what you're viewing and what you're doing. All the storm troopers have to do is ask. No warrant will be required.
A firestorm erupted in the House of Commons on Tuesday, as opposition MPs charged the Tories are bent on turning Canada the Great White North into a "surveillance society", along the lines foreseen by George Orwell in 1984. Walt says Orwell was only out by a generation or so, and you could get an argument that he didn't miss by even that much.
Time doesn't permit further comment today, but I have to share with you the editorial cartoon by Brian Gable in today's Globe and Mail.
Warning to non-Canucks: Don't think for even a minute that your government -- American, British, whatever -- doesn't want to control your computer and your mind. An Internet lobotomy is being planned for you even as you read this.
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