Canadian Internet Surveillance Bill Abandoned

The Conservative Canadian government has abandoned it internet surveillance bill after major criticism. The bill  which was put forward as a big step towards  fighting  child pornography, would have allowed the government the freedom to keep watch on the internet activities of its citizens. Justice Minister Rob Nicholson made the announcement that the bill, C-30 was dead. He said:

“We have listened to the concerns of Canadians. We will not be proceeding with bill C-30…including the warrentless mandatory disclosure of basic subscriber information, or the requirements of telecommunication service providers to build intercept capabilities within their systems.”

Bill C-30, also known as the Protecting Children from Internet Predators Act was introduced to Parliament less than a year ago and it was pitched that Canadians either supported the bill or supported child pornographers which lead to wide public outrage.

The legislation highlighted legitimate privacy concerns. The bill, had it passed, would have forced internet providers to have systems in place that allowed police to intercept and track any online communication they chose. It would also have allowed the authorities to have warrentless access to internet subscriber information that would have included name, address, telephone number and email address as well as the internet protocol (IP) address of the subscriber.