I don't usually get into politics here, but there are some things going on in Canada right now that require a response, this is my letter to our Prime Minister:
Dear Mr. Harper
You likely won`t remember me but we met once back when you were a young Reform Party snack pack MP and I was in my university Reform Party club. I`ve always been a fan and supporter but recently I`ve been thinking back to the idealistic days of our youth and the things people on our side of the political divide talked about back in those days. Mostly, we talked about how Canadians deserved more freedom and less government intrusion, a more efficient government, smaller, less costly and with greater personal freedom and responsibility for all Canadians. My question to you is what the hell happened? Looking at the recent legislative agenda I just don`t see these values reflected. Lets start with bill C-10, two questions there, why and why now? Our crime rate has been falling for 2 decades and we`re in the middle of one of the largest economic downturns in the history of the world, so please explain to me what we`re trying to accomplish here, with an expensive over haul of our criminal law? You`ve talked about unreported crime, but that just doesn`t make sense, why would people be more likely to report crime under the new law, mandatory minimum sentences and broad new categories of criminality will do nothing to increase reporting and and may even result in a decrease in reporting due to people not wishing to report what they perceive as minor violations if the believe the people they report will receive draconian sentences that don`t fit the crime. What`s more spending millions on new prisons at a time of economic crisis, while the crime rate continues to fall, is the kind of crappy economic thinking I`ve grown to expect from the Liberals or NDP, not from us.
Moving on, bill C-30, first I should start by mentioning this won`t work, I work in the IT field and have for more than a decade, the same tools sponsored by western governments to defeat internet control schemes like the great firewall of China and Iranian internet censorship will easily defeat the technological tools available for this scheme. Nor are the tools I mention criminal in nature, the most prominent of these tools, TOR is sponsored by the US state department. In other words, anyone who really wants to hide their activities online will continue to be able to, leaving the government only able to monitor those who are innocent and those to ignorant to use the privacy tools available, the ignorant are easy to catch without having to spy on the entire nation, so really what this bill allows is police and government surveillance of innocent Canadian. I for one might be fine with that if I knew that we would always have an ethical Tory government that would never use these powers to spy on their political rivals, but in a democracy no government lasts forever and I`m simply not sure I trust the Liberals or NDP with these powers. Please explain to me how and in what way giving our cops the right to spy on all Canadians without a warrant promotes greater personal freedom for Canadians As a further note on this bill, your ministers comment that anyone who doesn`t support this bill supports child porn was both stupid and insulting to hundreds of thousands of Canadian who oppose this expensive piece of government over reach, many of whom will have voted Tory in the last election as I did. The ministers resignation would be an adequate apology.
All in all, I`m deeply concerned by the path this government is taking, I ask that you try and remember those old days when we spent our time talking about how Canadians deserved more freedom and a less intrusive government.
Yours
Tim Joyce
You likely won`t remember me but we met once back when you were a young Reform Party snack pack MP and I was in my university Reform Party club. I`ve always been a fan and supporter but recently I`ve been thinking back to the idealistic days of our youth and the things people on our side of the political divide talked about back in those days. Mostly, we talked about how Canadians deserved more freedom and less government intrusion, a more efficient government, smaller, less costly and with greater personal freedom and responsibility for all Canadians. My question to you is what the hell happened? Looking at the recent legislative agenda I just don`t see these values reflected. Lets start with bill C-10, two questions there, why and why now? Our crime rate has been falling for 2 decades and we`re in the middle of one of the largest economic downturns in the history of the world, so please explain to me what we`re trying to accomplish here, with an expensive over haul of our criminal law? You`ve talked about unreported crime, but that just doesn`t make sense, why would people be more likely to report crime under the new law, mandatory minimum sentences and broad new categories of criminality will do nothing to increase reporting and and may even result in a decrease in reporting due to people not wishing to report what they perceive as minor violations if the believe the people they report will receive draconian sentences that don`t fit the crime. What`s more spending millions on new prisons at a time of economic crisis, while the crime rate continues to fall, is the kind of crappy economic thinking I`ve grown to expect from the Liberals or NDP, not from us.
Moving on, bill C-30, first I should start by mentioning this won`t work, I work in the IT field and have for more than a decade, the same tools sponsored by western governments to defeat internet control schemes like the great firewall of China and Iranian internet censorship will easily defeat the technological tools available for this scheme. Nor are the tools I mention criminal in nature, the most prominent of these tools, TOR is sponsored by the US state department. In other words, anyone who really wants to hide their activities online will continue to be able to, leaving the government only able to monitor those who are innocent and those to ignorant to use the privacy tools available, the ignorant are easy to catch without having to spy on the entire nation, so really what this bill allows is police and government surveillance of innocent Canadian. I for one might be fine with that if I knew that we would always have an ethical Tory government that would never use these powers to spy on their political rivals, but in a democracy no government lasts forever and I`m simply not sure I trust the Liberals or NDP with these powers. Please explain to me how and in what way giving our cops the right to spy on all Canadians without a warrant promotes greater personal freedom for Canadians As a further note on this bill, your ministers comment that anyone who doesn`t support this bill supports child porn was both stupid and insulting to hundreds of thousands of Canadian who oppose this expensive piece of government over reach, many of whom will have voted Tory in the last election as I did. The ministers resignation would be an adequate apology.
All in all, I`m deeply concerned by the path this government is taking, I ask that you try and remember those old days when we spent our time talking about how Canadians deserved more freedom and a less intrusive government.
Yours
Tim Joyce
posted by Tim Joyce at 12:32 PM
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