The amusing comic above is from Ruben Bolling’s comic, Tom the Dancing Bug. The humour does not end there as apparently the Pentagon may suspect that big data is a threat to national security. As Obama prepares to address Americans this morning, two articles discuss Canada’s silence on the surveillance issues. Michael Geist published a compelling post this morning:
The U.S. reaction stands in stark contrast to the situation in Canada. Canadian government officials have said little about Canadian surveillance activities, despite leaks of spying activities, cooperation with the NSA, a federal court decision that criticized the intelligence agencies for misleading the court, and a domestic metadata program which remains shrouded in secrecy. In fact, the government seems to have moved in the opposite direction, by adopting a lower threshold for warrants seeking metadata than is required for standard warrants in Bill C-13.
And the Toronto Star‘s Rick Salutin urges us all to fight back against surveillance:
The general objection to monstrous surveillance isn’t that the wrong guys run it; it’s that it’s none of your damn business, whoever you are. It doesn’t matter who’s in charge, including me or you. The problem isn’t politics; it’s human nature. Anyone is tempted to behave badly, and will, with that kind of power.
