Need a warrant to unmask Internet users? Not if Canada gets its way
When Canada's Conservatives took the most votes in the May 2011 federal election, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said that an "omnibus" security/crime bill would be introduced within 100 days. The bill would wrap up a whole host of ideas that were previously introduced as separate bills—and make individual ideas much more difficult to debate. A key part of the omnibus bill will apparently be "lawful access" rules giving police greater access to ISP and geolocation data—often without a warrant—and privacy advocates and liberals are up in arms.
Writing yesterday in The Globe & Mail, columnist Lawrence Martin said that the bill "will compel Internet service providers to disclose customer information to authorities without a court order. In other words—blunter words—law enforcement agencies will have a freer hand in spying on the private lives of Canadians."
He quotes former Conservative public safety minister Stockwell Day, now retired, as swearing off warrantless access. "We are not in any way, shape or form wanting extra powers for police to pursue [information online] without warrants," Day said—but there's a new Conservative sheriff in town, and he wants his "lawful access."
