What’s that? Telecoms and ISPs will have to
spend lots of money to create spy infrastructure and backdoors for police as
part of the lawful access bill, and those costs will be passed on to consumers?
You don’t say! Meanwhile, here are some “inconvenient truths” about the bill on
both sides of the debate, including previous Liberal attempts to get similar
legislation passed, and that officials at Public Safety have said that many
aspects of the bill are “untenable.”
An Ottawa
Citizen investigation reveals that the Twitter account attacking Vic Toews
is coming from inside the House…of Commons IP gateway!
The Speaker has ruled that babies in the chamber are okay when there’s no other choice, but seeing as most votes are
scheduled, parents should be able to find other options. Oh, and bring future
issues to him rather than the media. But just as the working mother lobby gets
their backs up, there is talk that MPs might be having their budgets and benefits
cut by some 10 percent, which would mean fewer free flights – you know, so
that MPs with families will have less ability to see them and because we want
to discourage future prospective MPs by making the compensation
for the job even less attractive.
The New Democrats are counting on public opinion to
back their budget demands. Yeah, because that will be convincing in the face of
the Strong Mandate™ of the Strong, Stable, Conservative Majority®.
Brian Topp has hinted that if he does win
the NDP leadership, he’ll ask a Quebec MP to step down so that he can run for
said seat in a by-election. He realizes that Bloc leader Daniel Paillé is
also without a seat and would likely be running in that same by-election,
right?
The lobbying commissioner wants more clout for her office, which is currently toothless as it can only refer files to the RCMP
or the director of public prosecutions. Interestingly, some high-profile
Conservative backroom agents and fundraisers agree with the call.
And here’s a list of all the torqued “short
titles” the Conservatives have been giving bills, along with what their
actual legal titles are. It’s pretty telling of the kinds of narratives the
Conservatives are trying to build with these short titles (a practice that
seems largely to have been cribbed from the Republican playbook, if you must
know).
Why you can trust Xtra
