{"id":13683,"date":"2012-02-22T11:19:49","date_gmt":"2012-02-22T16:19:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=13683"},"modified":"2012-02-22T11:19:49","modified_gmt":"2012-02-22T16:19:49","slug":"mr-toews-encapsulated-both-the-intellectual-bankruptcy-of-the-post-911-securityfreedom-equation-and-the-capricious-self-indulgent-doltishness-that-sometimes-infects-the-conservative-government","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/2012\/02\/22\/mr-toews-encapsulated-both-the-intellectual-bankruptcy-of-the-post-911-securityfreedom-equation-and-the-capricious-self-indulgent-doltishness-that-sometimes-infects-the-conservative-government\/","title":{"rendered":"“Mr. Toews encapsulated both the intellectual bankruptcy of the post-9\/11 security\/freedom equation and the capricious, self-indulgent doltishness that sometimes infects the Conservative government\u2019s policymaking”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chris Selley<\/a> in the National Post<\/em> on the disappointing moment at the start of the fight against C-30, the Canadian government’s internet bill that would eviscerate what little privacy protection still exists:<\/p>\n

\n

The most disappointing moment in the otherwise heartening backlash against the Protecting Children from Online Predators Act came right at the beginning, immediately after Public Safety Minister Vic Toews issued his immortal Question Period ultimatum. Mr. Toews was defending a law that would, among other things, allow government agents to march into your Internet service provider, without a warrant, and \u201cexamine any document, information or thing.\u201d In this regard, he said Liberal MP Francis Scarpaleggia, and by extension all Canadians, \u201ccan either stand with us or with the child pornographers.\u201d<\/p>\n

He deserved — Canadian democracy deserved — nothing less than a humiliating, well-crafted, immediate putdown. He didn\u2019t even get a \u201cfor shame.\u201d<\/p>\n

[. . .]<\/p>\n

In a dozen words, Mr. Toews encapsulated both the intellectual bankruptcy of the post-9\/11 security\/freedom equation and the capricious, self-indulgent doltishness that sometimes infects the Conservative government\u2019s policymaking. Any high school student should be able to identify and debunk the fallacy Mr. Toews was employing; to defend the intrinsic value of freedom and privacy; to articulate the dangers of handing governments excessive and unnecessary powers.<\/p>\n

[. . .]<\/p>\n

So, I think Mr. Toews\u2019 comment sealed the deal. In the light of day, the War on Terror-era \u201cyou\u2019re with us or you\u2019re with the terrorists\u201d argument is cringe-inducing; sub in criminals for terrorists and it\u2019s laughable. More importantly, though, I suspect Mr. Toews finally confirmed a certain suspicion among many Canadians: When the government tells you it needs to limit your privacy or freedom, what it probably means is that it wants to limit your privacy and freedom and thinks you won\u2019t put up a fight. It\u2019s delightful to see this government proved wrong.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chris Selley in the National Post on the disappointing moment at the start of the fight against C-30, the Canadian government’s internet bill that would eviscerate what little privacy protection still exists: The most disappointing moment in the otherwise heartening backlash against the Protecting Children from Online Predators Act came right at the beginning, immediately […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,84,10,28,15],"tags":[58,322,458,98,154,201],"class_list":["post-13683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cancon","category-government","category-liberty","category-media","category-technology","tag-internet","tag-nannystate","tag-parliament","tag-police","tag-privacy","tag-securitytheatre"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hpV6-3yH","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13683"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13683\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13684,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13683\/revisions\/13684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}