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Where are we?
If you look at the Occupy Movement, especially within the context of Canada, we learn that while Canadians understand that Canada is in a desperate need for a democratic reform focused on civil liberties and social justice, we just do not seem able to collaborate for a common goal.
So far, we have identified the following issue groups:
- Labour/Unions
- Students
- Aboriginal communities
- Environmentalists
- Federal opposition parties
- Civil Rights groups
- Citizen and special interest groups
- Occupy movements; and
- Anonymous
These groups are by no means mutually exclusive. But if Occupy has proven anything, it proved that groups focused on different issues also compete for resources as well as media and public attention. As problems are tackled by different groups with different priorities, one of the main challenges of Occupy has been to equally accommodate time and resources for all these competing issues. Instead of trying to find common grounds between social and political groups, the focus has mainly been on how to advance one issue over others, often at the expense of group unity and solidarity.
Our shortcoming has proven to be our understanding of ourselves through a given social role: student, worker, voter, tax payers, you name it. Thus, these social and political organizations often tend to focus on one aspect of our lives and advocate for interests specific to these roles.
But now a bill has been introduced that must bring us together under one cause: Bill C-30.
Amidst public debates on an unconstitutional crime bill, blatant government censorship and muzzling of opposition voices, labelling of opposition as extremists and terror threats, and an austerity program aimed at impoverishing social services and non-profit organizations, it is imperative for all Canadians to unite against this Conservative Government’s spying bill.
Canada is becoming a surveillance state. And at the risk of being dismissed as conspiracy theorists, we must state that democracy begins with communication and the free flow of information. The moment our government intrudes in our private communication while labelling dissidents ‘terror threats’, we no longer have the freedom to organize as citizens in a democratic society.
Thus, whether you are a student activist, an occupier, a labour activist, a privacy advocate, or an environmentalist, your basic ability to communicate with those who share your views will soon come under surveillance, censorship, and criminalization.
In the context of a free and democratic society, we argue that of all undemocratic steps taken by the Conservative Government, Bill C-30 has the most chilling consequences of all:
Privacy is not about secrecy… Privacy is about control. The individual being in control of who has access to their information. And this is what we need to preserve, that freedom of choice. It’s our information. It’s not the government’s information, and if you haven’t broken the law, it shouldn’t be the police’s information…
In this free society, you can do whatever you like as long as long as you are not breaking the law. Government has no businesses
It’s a myth that somehow giving up your privacy is going to give you greater security. It’s non-sense. But it sounds really good. There is this zero-sum model that everyone applies: the more security you have, by necessity, the less privacy you can have.
It’s not that somehow if you forfeit your privacy you are miraculously going to get more security. You’ll get less of both. We don’t need to do that.
And furthermore,
I have nothing to hide. Why should I worry?
Privacy is implied. Privacy is NOT up for discussion.
This is not a question between privacy against security. It is a question of freedom against control.
There are three major issues Canadians face in regards to the establishment of a surveillance state: Bills C-30, C-10, and S-7. All these bills have devastating implications on freedom and democracy.
Before any of these bills proceed any further, we urgently call upon all Canadians as well as social and political organizations to a national campaign of solidarity. We propose #OpKillBillz, a national information campaign that draws on the collaboration between all Canadians, unions, activists, organizations. If there was one issue that all Canadians could join collaborate on, we are confident Bill C-30 provides the perfect opportunity. And it will only be the start.
We must seize the current opportunity presented by the media’s attention around the controversies of Bill C-30. This is the time to engage with the public on the streets, schools, public transit… everywhere and anywhere.
We particularly call upon national unions with already established national networks and organizational experience to assist us organize this campaign. For this campaign to be successful, we will require human resources and the national framework that only large unions could facilitate.
We are ready to organize… We are waiting on you… Help us organize #OpKillBillz
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