Fun and Games at the Department of Public Safety

I know, I’m sorry - I’ve been neglecting you. Unfortunately my obsessive blogging has had to take a back seat this week as I play catch-up after my trip to Maryland. Orders to fill, newsletters to publish, and another show this Saturday have left me with precious little time to write or even cruise the net for stories to entertain you with.

Happily, my sister-in-law dug this one up for me:

Government moving to access personal info, sparking privacy fears

Government agencies are moving to gain access to telephone and internet customers' personal information without first getting a court order, according to a document obtained by CBCNews.ca that is raising privacy issues.

Public Safety Canada and Industry Canada have begun a consultation on how law enforcement and national security agencies can gain lawful access to customers' information. The information would include names, addresses, land and cellphone numbers, as well as additional mobile phone identification, such as a device serial number and a subscriber identity module (SIM) card number.

…Canada's move is in contrast to one by the United States, where last week a federal judge overturned a part of the Patriot Act that allowed the Federal Bureau of Investigation to secretly obtain personal records about customers from internet providers, phone companies, banks, libraries and other businesses without a court's permission.

Speaking on the phone from Paris, Peter Fleischer, global privacy counsel for internet search giant Google Inc., told CBCNews.ca that even in the security-conscious United States, courts have moved to curtail excessive attempts by the government at extracting personal information.

Lovely. Not only are we copying every dumbassed policy the Bush administration has ever instituted in the name of Homeland Security, now we’re trying to implement the shit that even THEY can’t get away with!

Public Safety has been typically reticent about disclosing any details about this particular consultation process. But when confronted, a spokesperson from Day's office promised to have the information posted on their website by Thursday. It took a bit of digging, but I found it. Such as it is.

(H/T to Emu)

I'm Back!

In case you didn't know, whenever I'm not blogging, selling wood crafts online, working at the video store, writing half a monthly movie review column for the local paper, or publishing genealogical books and newsletters, I sing with a little Renaissance-themed a capella group called Nero's Fiddle.

For money. Really.

The Maryland Renaissance Festival was a tremendous success. Not only did we have a brilliant time and get to reconnect with old friends, but Nero's Fiddle was a GIANORMOUS HIT!!! We actually had fans following us from show to show with all of our venues circled on their little schedule sheets. We had crowds of semi-professional Ren Fest patrons closing their eyes and rocking in their seats as we sang 'Red Is the Rose'. We even got called up to sing a song during Pub Sing. Pub Sing!

(Ok, you have no idea what I'm talking about. But really, it was cool!)

This is the sort of crowd we got to sing for this weekend:



It was stinking hot and humid, my ankles are swollen up thicker than my calves and every article of clothing I packed smells like ass, but I'm totally stoked.

Out of my four or five paying jobs, this one rates way up there.

Blogging Off

Farewell good gentles! I'm off to Maryland for a few days with the wenches of Nero's Fiddle to sing at the Maryland Renaissance Festival. It's our American debut!


(That's me on the left. Now you know.)

And yes, it's three in the morning right now and my ride should be arriving in about... fifteen minutes. Good thing I like long road trips.

I was going to give you a brief post on John Tory's gaffe of the day to chew over while I'm gone. But after reading some of the vitriol being spewed on the subject, I decided I wouldn't want to touch that one with someone else's blog.

You'll just have to find some other way to amuse yourselves.

Whoops!

Wow. Apparently Whoopi Goldberg had a banner first day on 'The View' this morning:

Outspoken comedian Whoopi Goldberg drew a scathing rebuke from animal rights activists on Tuesday for defending U.S. football star Michael Vick's role in dogfighting during her debut on ABC's talk show "The View."

"He's from the South, from the Deep South ... This is part of his cultural upbringing," Goldberg said of the Atlanta Falcons quarterback, whose recent fall from grace has been one of the most stunning in the history of U.S. sports.

..."For a lot of people, dogs are sport," Goldberg said on the show. "Instead of just saying (Vick) is a beast and he's a monster, this is a kid who comes from a culture where this is not questioned."

Of course, some white folks in the Deep South have their own 'cultural' traditions. I think they called that a 'sport', too.

Another Summit, Another Protest

Here we go again.

World leaders will be meeting in Sydney, Australia this week for the APEC conference, and oh look: a fence.



PM Howard is getting a head start on dismissing the protesters as violent, left-wing loonies who hate progress and have something against making money. Just to drive home the point, authorities have shut down much of Sydney’s business district to protect it from ‘property damage’, turning the area into a ghost town and thus completely screwing downtown business owners out of doing business.

Way to stand up for capitalism, Johnny!

One curious side note to the week’s discussions will be Canada and Australia’s potential inclusion in the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (gee, there’s that ‘Partnership’ word again). Harper is, as usual, staying mute on whether or not Canada is going to be getting involved with this particular little club, but given how much he delights in joining things like this I suspect that the decision is already made.

I should point out that I personally approve of nuclear power - at least in principle. In practice there are still some serious disposal problems that need to be addressed, but when balanced against the safety and environmental issues with coal and gas, the maxing out of our hydro capacity (unless you want to flood more of northern Quebec), and the impracticality of large scale solar or wind generation, I still think nuclear is still our best bet.

[duck]

ANYWAY… From what I've read so far, I have at least three problems with the GNEP:

1) It would force nations that produce uranium (like Canada and Australia) to "repatriate" it and dispose of it, even if it was exported to and used by another country (like, say, the U.S.). Like we don’t have enough problems disposing of our own nuclear waste, now we’d have to take out the Americans’ trash as well.

2) It is a thinly veiled attempt to divide the world into energy haves and have-nots, with developed nations establishing a monopoly on nuclear technology in the name of security:

"The group includes many of the main countries involved in the nuclear fuel cycle, including Russia, China and France. Its broader aim is to eventually secure the entire fuel cycle and confine production and reprocessing to the group, with smaller countries effectively leasing nuclear fuel from the partnership and returning waste to it for reprocessing."

3) It’s an American-led initiative. That can't be good.

Edit: Here's an even better shot of the fences in downtown Sydney. I like the convenient gates.

What I Was GOING to Say...

Don’t you hate it when you think too long about a post and then someone else beats you to it?

I’ve spent the last two weeks tinkering with a potential blog post about protests in general and why I suspect a misunderstanding of the notion of ‘non-violence’ may have decreased their effectiveness.

Then lo and behold, Rick Salutin at the Globe & Mail (who is rapidly becoming my hero) writes a brilliant editorial on Friday in honour of Labour Day on precisely that theme.

Bugger.

I’m still not happy with what I’ve been writing on this subject. It’s wandering all over the place and getting into areas that I really know nothing about. So instead of inflicting the whole mess on you, here are a few of the more coherent thoughts I’ve had in nice, neat, somewhat random point form:

1) I think that demonstrations like the one at Montebello have become too generic. It seems to always be the same groups with the same banners chanting the same all-purpose slogans. And while there is undoubtedly a deep connection between the peace, environmental, labour and anti-capitalist / -corporate / -globalization movements, unless there is more specific focus at specific events the message is in danger of getting lost.

2) There appears to be a distinction that I was previously unaware of between the so-called ‘Black Bloc’ protesters who cover their faces and wear black clothing to avoid being identified or singled out by the police, and those who simply wear vinegar-soaked bandannas to protect themselves from tear gas. The latter group, from what I saw, make no attempt to conceal their identities, and are apparently less inclined to throw things or damage property (feel free to correct me if I’m wrong). Both groups seem equally willing to put themselves in harm’s way for a cause they believe in.

3) The commenter on one of my previous posts who said, "I don't believe that violence accomplishes anything" may be missing an important point. In fact, violence has an important role in traditional Gandhi/King-style ‘non-violent’ protest: specifically, violence perpetrated by those one is protesting against.

4) It’s important that this violence not be provoked by throwing rocks at the police or smashing windows. That sort of thing only alienates people and accomplishes nothing. Instead, violence can and maybe should be provoked by reasonable and non-violent direct action such as burning passes, making salt, registering to vote, squatting / sit-ins, etc. This kind of provocation is not only acceptable, it is probably the most effective way to establish the moral high ground and illustrate the injustice of the status quo.

5) Not everyone taking part in these demonstrations is willing to take a truncheon to the head or pepper spray to the face, or even risk being arrested. Those who are willing should not be marginalized or simply dismissed as ‘radicals’. Instead, it may be time to start meeting them half way. If they are that anxious to place themselves in harm’s way, then we should respect them for that. But protest organizers need to be the ones provoking the authorities to action in a meaningful way and on purely righteous terms.

6) Conversely, if organizers aren’t willing to do more than wave flags and make speeches, then they shouldn’t be surprised when it’s the shot of the mailbox going through the plate glass window that ends up on the 6 o’clock news.

So there you go. My personal and largely uninformed opinion. Have at it.

Edit: And now, the view from the far left. Interesting. I disagree with some of what they're saying, especially towards the end, but it's point of view worth taking seriously.

Three Things To Love About Milton

1) The Farmer’s Market. This morning I got my cheese fix from the Upper Canada Cheese Company, stopped and chatted with Leslie the Librarian and ex-candidate Peter Haight, and then ran into Les from Nero’s Fiddle, thus saving me a phone call. And I can do this every weekend!


2) Waldie’s Blacksmith Shop. Yes, we have our very own working blacksmith’s shop, which aside from a 30 year hiatus at the end of the last century has been in continuous operation since before the town was incorporated. The Waldies still live next door. How cool is that?


3) Milton Steam Era. Steam enthusiasts come from all over the country to show off their babies, camping out in trailers and RVs that ring the Fairgrounds, which is all of two blocks from my house. Once a year I get to listen to steam whistles and watch unbelievably old tractors chug past my front door on their way to the site.

I love this town.

Edit: And here was the scene right in front of my house later in the day. There was apparently some sort of delay on the way to the parade.