The final communiqué issued by the “Five Eyes” surveillance alliance after a recent meeting in Ottawa suggests what might turn out to be a made-in-Canada global encryption backdoor. The post Canada and “Five Eyes” spying partners must respect encryption appeared first on The Canadian Progressive.
Continue readingTag: lawful access
Accidental Deliberations: New column day
Here, on how a change in government hasn’t done anything to slow the spread of Canada’s surveillance state – both in terms of intrusive new legislative proposals, and a continued determination to operate even outside the law. For further reading…– Again, Dave Seglins and Rachel Houlihan reported on the Cold
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Thomas Frank writes that a progressive party can only expect to succeed if it places principles of equality and workers’ interests at the core of everything it does – rather than serving mostly as the voice of a wealthy professional class: Somewhere in
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Afternoon Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading.
– Don Pittis writes that it will take far more than words and sentiments to reverse the trend of growing income inequality. Elaine Power points out that Ontario’s social assistance programs – like those elsewhere – far fall short of meeting basic human needs. And Christopher Mackie reminds us that the effects of poverty go well beyond immediate financial consequences:
Canada has free, high-quality healthcare for everyone. So why do the richest 10% of people live seven years longer than the poorest? Deep poverty can be associated with a drop in life expectancy of 20 years or more. If we look at both life expectancy and years lived with disability, the rich are 39% healthier than the poor.
Income affects health in several ways, including the direct impact on the resources needed for healthy living, access to healthy physical environments and access to healthy social environments.
Poverty limits access to nutritious food, recreation opportunities, adequate housing, and the education needed to pull oneself out of poverty. Each year, the Middlesex-London Health Unit issues a report that compares the cost of nutritious food to income received from minimum or welfare wage. This Nutritious Food Basket Report consistently shows that it is impossible for people on low income in London and Middlesex County to afford healthy food once basic costs such as rent and utilities are paid.
…
The benefits of policies that address poverty go far beyond simply helping the poor. Research has consistently shown that everyone is better off in societies that are more equal. Comparisons of countries which are part of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) consistently show that in societies that are most equal, even the poor are healthier than the rich in societies that are the least equal. In other words, greater income equality means better health for everyone – including the rich.This paradox – that my income is linked with my health, but that my society’s income equality is also linked with my health – is not fully understood. One theory is that it is linked with the social environments we live in. More unequal societies tend to be more competitive, with fewer opportunities for upward mobility. This can be associated with stress and hopelessness. Stress is linked with a number of health problems from heart disease to cancer. Hopelessness can be devastating, reducing motivation to seek employment and leading a person to neglect their health or even engage in self-harming behaviours like addiction to alcohol and drugs.
In more equal societies, a feeling that friends, neighbours and fellow citizens will offer help when needed can be motivational, even leading to an increased sense of self-worth. Reduced stress can allow us to see past day-to-day challenges and make better decisions for the long term.
– Christopher Adams exposes how employers are exploiting millenial workers. And Evelyn Kwong and Sara Mojtehedzadeh report on a temporary employee’s workplace death in Toronto, while Adam Hunter discusses the appalling trend of people being killed on the job in Saskatchewan.
– Tonda MacCharles reports on the Libs’ discussion paper on security laws. And Jeremy Nuttall notes that there’s ample reason for concern that they want to make matters even worse by reviving dubious “lawful access” provisions rather than correcting even the overreach found in Bill C-51.
– The Star’s editorial board writes that we should be strengthening our universal public health care system rather than destroying it as Brian Day and others want to do.
– Finally, Kathy Tomlinson details how Canada’s tax laws are being flouted by the investors making millions off of the explosion of Vancouver’s real estate market.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Hakan Bengtsson offers some useful discussion about the challenges facing Sweden’s social democratic system – as the same factors being used to prevent the development of a more equitable society in Canada and elsewhere are being cited as excuses to tear down the
Continue readingOpenMedia.ca: Geist: Setting the Stage for the Next Decade of Open Access
A group of researchers from around the world have been discussing a plan for ‘open access’. Their goal is one that would remove barriers to obtaining educational materials online so that the worldwide community could benefit from shared research and knowledge. Education is one of the many reasons that the
Continue readingImpolitical: Benchquest: The what to do with Vic Toews saga rolls on
Just reading Tim Harper’s latest, hot off the internets: “Vic Toews and his quest for the bench.” This part jumped out: The Court of Appeal post is a federal appointment and Harper is believed to have told Toews that he would not appoint his minister directly to the bench. Instead,
Continue readingImpolitical: Harper’s extra-Parliamentary internet surveillance committee
This news is a new low in the Harper government’s ongoing debasement of Parliament’s role in Canadian democracy: In the months leading up to the introduction Bill C-30, Canada’s telecom companies worked actively with government officials to identify key issues and to develop a secret industry-government collaborative forum on lawful
Continue readingImpolitical: The #TellVicEverything sequel: #TellDaveEverything
I was half joking in my post yesterday about the need for a #TellDaveEverything hashtag in the U.K. on the occasion of the U.K. Tories introducing their own intrusive internet surveillance legislation. Turns out, the fine citizens of the U.K. have got one up and going. Good for them! Hope
Continue readingImpolitical: Routine cellphone tracking in the U.S.
There is a must read as context for the Canadian C-30 legislation that is pending, the lead from the New York Times today: “Police Tracking of Cellphones Raises Privacy Fears.” The American Civil Liberties Union has put together records from police departments across the U.S. showing widespread cellphone tracking that
Continue readingImpolitical: A short C-30 video
“OPP Commissioner Chris Lewis and Information and Privacy Commissioner Ann Cavoukian debate whether the powers proposed in Bill C-30 are needed to battle cybercrime. More at: http://bit.ly/wvdZLb.”
Continue readingImpolitical: A House of Commons marker laid down for the C-30 rewrite
This was the text of a motion passed in the House of Commons last night. The motion was brought by Liberals with a view to the coming debate at committee over C-30, the Conservatives’ proposed and invasive internet surveillance legislation: That the House recognize: (a) the fundamental right of all
Continue readingImpolitical: The right thing to do
Case closed: Interim Liberal Leader Bob Rae says one of his staffers was responsible for a series of anonymous Internet attacks aimed at Public Safety Minister Vic Toews. “I was advised yesterday that an employee of the Liberal research bureau in fact is responsible,” the chagrined Liberal leader told the
Continue readingImpolitical: A pause on the internet surveillance bill?
So reports the Globe late last night: “Ottawa hits pause on Web surveillance act.” The Harper government is temporarily parking controversial legislation that would grant new powers to authorities to police the Internet while it consults on how to rewrite it to assuage privacy concerns among Canadians and within caucus.
Continue readingImpolitical: Late night
“The state has no business in the hard drives of the nation.” You go, Rick Mercer!
Continue readingImpolitical: Keeping an eye on the ball that is C-30
More on C-30 here. On the one hand, there was this presentation from a Vancouver police official yesterday: “People need to focus and keep their eye on the ball,” said Warren Lemcke, Vancouver’s deputy chief constable. “We can’t monitor your e-mails. We can’t monitor your phone calls. We can’t monitor
Continue readingOpenMedia.ca: Border deal between Canada and U.S. raises privacy concerns
A recently unveiled border security agreement between Canada and its neighbour to the South requires Canada to step up security measures, and share more information on Canadians with the U.S. The new border deal will take the problem of the Canadian government spying on its citizens one step further, by
Continue readingImpolitical: Family Day drive-by blogging
Well it’s a holiday of some kind in Ontario today, that Family Day thingy. Whatever you may be doing, have a good one. Here’s a bunch of reading material, for lack of better terminology, for your day off. Most of it is a break from Canadian politics. 1. This seems
Continue readingImpolitical: Conservatives against online spying & other notes
There is a letter cross-posted at OpenMedia.ca that has been sent to the members of the conservative Free Dominion site. It’s essentially an appeal for the Conservative base to contact their MPs and encourage them to speak out against C-30. This online spying legislation is antithetical to core conservative principles
Continue readingImpolitical: Hilarious spin
Well now, he is the omniscient one: “Harper sensed cyber outrage was looming.” Prime Minister Stephen Harper had already made the decision to kick a controversial cyber crime bill to committee even before Opposition howled because he sensed a public backlash was rolling his way, QMI Agency has learned. Harper
Continue reading