Canada's warrantless surveillance bill is, improbably, dead

Remember Canada's Bill C-30, the sweeping surveillance bill proposed by Public Safety Minister Vic Toews, who declared that if you opposed unlimited, unaccountable, secret warrantless snooping on networked communications by the police and by appointed civilians, you "stand with the child pornographers?" The bill that was a sure thing to pass, given the Conservative majority in Parliament and its total commitment to the bill?

It's dead.

The Globe and Mail's John Ibbitson describes how a combination of social media campaigns (the #TellVicEverything hashtag, which saw Canadians revealing the trivial facts of their life to the snoopy minister; and the @Vikileaks30 account, which tweeted the humiliating details of Toews' ugly divorce and estrangement from his family) and Toews's own idiocy killed the seemingly unkillable plan:

That new bill, if there is one, will probably be shepherded by a different minister. That’s how much damage this botched legislation inflicted on the government and on Mr. Toews...

Normally, after a bill receives first reading, debate begins on second reading, which is approval in principle. Once the bill passes second reading, it goes to a committee, where only minor amendments are permitted before the bill returns for third and final reading.

Instead of this usual route, House Leader Peter Van Loan decided to send C-30 to the public safety committee first, where it is supposed to be extensively revised, before returning to the House for second and third reading.

But before any of that can happen, the rules state that the House must debate the motion to send the bill to committee. That debate must last at least five hours – in effect, one sitting day.

But that debate hasn’t happened. And sources report that it won’t happen before the House rises for summer recess. That makes C-30 dead in the water.

Here's our previous C-30 coverage.

How the Toews-sponsored Internet surveillance bill quietly died (via /.)

• [Gene Poole]

  Good to see that public opinion actually seems to matter in Canada…though I wonder whether the public would actually have cared had Toews not called us all a bunch of child porn freaks.

• [SoItBegins]

  Huzzah!

• [piowie]

   Not really…?
  http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2012/05/16/pol-toews-c-30-internet-surveillance-not-dead.html

  • [Shinkuhadoken]

    Let’s hope that’s more of a pathetic swan song than an actual threat.

• [Palomino]

  I don’t know why people are so upset about these attempts. SOMEONE has to submit these, creating laws and regulations can start with a yes, or no. Even people who agree with us  take control of these issues they see on the horizon. Yes, good people are behind bad legislation because it’s part of the system. Some are bright forward thinking individuals who defend our rights by creating  precedence through failed bills and measures.

  If you can’t beat ‘em  join “em. Gather with your enemies, know what they know, then go on the offensive by taking up and controlling their cause, which pretty much results in an outcome in our favor.

  • [elix]

    We’re upset because this is supposedly a free society (within the Charter of Rights and Freedoms – I’m not free to assault people at random) and the government elected to represent the people wants to strip away fundamental rights. Yes, someone can submit any sort of bill they like in a democratic system and have it considered, and it’ll be accepted, rejected, or modified before acceptance or rejection.

    But consider the fact that the bill as presented was sloppily-written such that it left loopholes for massive abuse of the Charter big enough that you could drive Manitoba through them. Then Vic Towes claimed to not understand what all the fuss was about and suggested that the complainers were in favour of child pornography since, after all, this is FOR THE CHILDRUNZZZ. …and then Vic seemed to not even know what his own bill said during a radio interview when confronted with the major privacy concerns.

    The fact is, we’re upset that a mess of a bill that would’ve stripped away fundamental privacy rights from all Canadians looked like it was going to be railroaded through parliament without so much as a courtesy reacharound to us. Or, to steal an old Air Farce joke, Vic didn’t even offer to put his tongue in my ear.

    Why the tongue? Because I like a little passion when I’m getting screwed.

    • [Palomino]

      Your argument is not sound, equating one internet privacy bill (not yet law) with assault. 

      Plus, there is no such thing as a “free society”. If you think there is, then please define what you think a “free society” is. It’s proportional. Some segments of society aren’t free while others have as much freedom as they can afford.

      • [elix]

        I was not exactly comparing the two together. I was qualifying my statement regarding being a free society, since I don’t have the freedom to attack people and all the other limitations we have on our freedom for the purposes of maintaining order and such, lest I be misinterpreted as suggesting we have absolute freedom.

        As for “free society,” yes, I’m not going to argue, but Canada’s supposed to be a modern, democratic society with a number of rights guaranteed to its citizens. Compare to a repressive dictatorship. In this context, non-1%er/MP citizens of a “free society” (as approximately defined by the juxtaposition above) are upset by a bill that threatens fundamental privacy rights. While in absolute terms my sentence is not correct, I hope the intended context is clearer, now that I’ve filled in the missing information.

    • [Gene Poole]

       Much like Jesus, Manitoba doesn’t have wheels, elix.

• [istvan]

  YEAH! First Byron Sonne is cleared and now this….awesome!

• [Shinkuhadoken]

  I can’t believe people who vote Conservative would want this bill passed either. I mean, if they think that registering their guns with the government is intrusive (and Conservatives eradicated the registry as a campaign promise), how is the government recording everything you do on the internet for posterity and recording every place you’ve ever been with your cell phone less so? If anything, rational people from all backgrounds have to stay firm that a free people cannot tolerate a snoopy government.

• [Genre Slur]

  Yeah, George Romero warned me about his…

• [liquidstar]

  How is it Dead?  I ve been reading this story the oppoiste way for at least a month now.

  • [msbpodcast]

    This is actually an active war on memory, more specifically on the ability to forget, if not forgive.

    It may mean that the bill is going to be revived by someone else who is not so vulnerable to the actual effects of allowing the kinds of surveillance the bill proposes.

    Toew was the wrong man because he is the kind of pathological idiot wo supposes himself above the very law he is proposing. Surprise he isn’t.

    Every stupid thing anyone has ever done, every embarrassing detail, every dillo peccaed can and will surface from the depth of memory.

    The ideals of a democracy led by men of impeccable character will be revealed for the sham it always was.

    Socrates will have the last laugh as nobody will be capable of living a life unexamined.

• [Mark Cebrowski]

  Whats going to happen….the bill will be refined &  re-branded. They will sit on it till the right crisis is created & voila……we have a bill with George  Orwell’s name all over it. There is a co-ordinated & rushed effort between both Canadian & US governments to monitor & track everyone, increase police powers, build bigger & larger prisons, merging of military powers & artificially keep our currencies on par…I’m not much for conspiracy but if you guys can’t see where this is heading we might as well pronounce Obama King of Canada right now & get it over with. 

• [beepbeep]

  Have you noticed that the entire world seems hell-bound for fascism? Despite France’s  election of a ‘leftist’, the country’s whole mood has lurched to the right. Here in the US, Obama is as far left as we can get. Fight the good fight because otherwise our children or their children will have to clear the rubble off their own heads. And realize that what is happening is a weird fast forward slo-mo revolution on the order of The Industrial Revolution and do not forget that.

  • [NelC]

    As far right as you can get? Have you heard of the Republicans? More to the point, have you not been paying attention to the Republican primaries? You can go a heck of a lot further right yet.

    • [Roose_Bolton]

      I take it beepbeep edited his post? I’m reading “Obama is as far left as we can get.”

• [chortick]

  Our government has previously let unpopular legislation die on the order paper.  The usual target audience is a minority of government supporters who are passionate about some issue that’s not on the mainstream radar.  Everyone is satisfied by this process: the government is seen to be doing something about a niche issue, a moral panic in the press generates the usual lather, and sensible people can remain confident that bad law will not be passed.  Canadian legislative kabuki.

• [Jim Saul]

  Is there some kind of way-back machine for twitter, for those of us who never saw the tweets from the now-dead account?

• [Ryan Lenethen]

  This died years ago, only to resurface again. I see nothing compelling to say this will not happen again, over and over, until they finally sneak it in.

• [Oliver Crosby]

  Good news for the child pornographers!  (and the rest of us too)

• [Mantissa128]

  I can’t tell whether this means our political system worked, or failed.

  • [Palomino]

    Best comment on the subject so far.