Thursday, March 5, 2015

A Little Perspective, Please

Are we losing all perspective on the threats posed by terrorism? While there is no doubt that all perils to public safety need to be taken seriously (yes, even those posed by pipeline ruptures that Enbridge seems to treat as state secrets), one cannot escape the conclusion that the Harper regime sees it in their best electoral interests to convince us that we cannot go about our daily lives without a massive surrending of freedoms, à la Bill C-51.

Edward Snowden, the NSA contractor who leaked classified information, suggests we need to get a little perspective.

In an online chat with Ryerson students yesterday, he had this to say about the Harper bill:
The former National Security Agency employee said only Canadians can decide on whether C-51 is a good or bad bill, but “Canadian intelligence has one of the weakest oversight frameworks out of any western intelligence agency.”

In Canada, terrorism kills fewer people than lightning strikes and it is extraordinarily rare, Snowden said.

“No matter what we do, no matter what laws we pass, we cannot throw away all of our rights, all of our liberties, all of our traditional freedoms because we are afraid of rare instances of criminal activity,” he said.
Snowden sees Canada going down the same pernicious route as the United States, asserting that C-51 is
just like the U.S. Patriot Act, the law passed following the 9-11 terrorist attacks to bolster the powers of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Central Intelligence Agency.

Under Bill C-51, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service would gain police-like powers to “disrupt” threats to Canada — including, but not limited to, terrorist threats.
Despite the fact that most people are innocent,
the freedoms and liberties people enjoy are being changed without their consent, Snowden added.
I think we can all rest assured that Snowden's warnings will go completely unheeded by the Harper regime.


6 comments:

  1. Terrorism is a weapon of fear that suits the terrorist and the unscrupulous government equally well. Both can put it to their purposes when both use it against the civilian population. It's even worse when your own government uses it as a weapon against the population to manipulate a result.

    It's government's duty to protect us against terrorism but it's also government's solemn duty to assure us and defeat the terrorists by restoring our confidence and sense of security. Think Roosevelt and "we have nothing to fear but fear itself."

    It's a crime when a hostile group uses terrorism against us. It's traitorous when it's wielded against us by our own government.

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    1. Well-said, Mound. Unfortunately, for far too many, the traitor within is invisible when in the guise of our protector.

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  2. Just out of curiousity, I dropped a comment here a couple of days ago, did it get lost/caught in a filter or something? You've always published my tomes before, so I have no reason to believe you did it deliberately, so I am just curious since this has never happened here before.

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    1. Hi Scotian. I'm really sorry your comment somehow didn't make it to me, as I value you contributionss greatly. Please try again, and if you don't see it appear, could you send them to me via the blogger contact form on the blog? I will strip away identifying information (email address) before publishing.

      People occasionally report a failed comment, and I have checked my setting and can't figure out what the problem might be.

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  3. Alas, it was an original creation and I didn't keep a copy at the time. Ah well, such is life...*sigh*.

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    1. It is our loss, Scotian. If it fails again, try the 'anonymous' option to see if you get better results.

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