#Tell Vic (Toews) Everything

As you might know by now, a bill (C-30) which the Canadian Government has tabled threatened to put everyone's online activities, as well as all cell phone conversations, open to the keen eyes of the authorities without a need for a warrant.

As a result, there has been an full-on pushback starting first with a look into the minister's personal life but now heading into an entirely unexpected direction... they want to tell Vic Toews everything on Twitter and it's having an impact... Who says the internet doesn't have the power to transform?

From becoming a singularly huge Canadian Twitter event, it has now grown internationally ... people everywhere want to let Vic know what they're doing.

Canadians worried about a potential loss of privacy due to a bill tabled this week in the House of Commons have decided to go the opposite route and tell Public Safety Minister Vic Toews everything about their lives, flooding his Twitter feed.

[...]

Toews has been downplaying fears since Tuesday when the legislation was tabled.

"The police will not be able to read emails or track web activity without a warrant," Toews said Thursday afternoon in question period.

The government has said it will consider amendments to the legislation, which has just started to make its way through the House of Commons.

www.cbc.ca...

Amazing!

Inspired by Bill C-30 and now trending, a hashtag devoted to Public Safety Minister Vic Toews is gathering a strange assortment of Twitter traffic. We've updated with our favourites ...

www.ipolitics.ca...

Click above to read a few of the Tweets.

More:

www.thestar.com...

www.theglobeandmail.com...

vancouver.openfile.ca...

reply to post by masqua


Kady O'malley's blog this week on the CBC site shows how the govt is trying to keep committee meetings in camera. There was an interesting twist in events there too, but it doesn't mean the govt won't still plot to become less transparent and more sinister.

As for tell Vic everything, I completely misunderstood. I vaguely heard about it in the background, but I thought the Vic was Vic Adopia (a CBC reporter) so I passed on it Duh. Does a facepalm and hides...

Cheers.

I understand the confusion, so I changed the title to include Vic Toews full name.

Funny thing happened on Twitter

The minister changed his account from @VicToews to @ToewsVic in the hopes of slowing the deluge.

Didn't work...

Whats the point here?

reply to post by jondave


The point is quite simple.

A bill was tabled giving authorities carte blanche to look into internet and cell phone activity without a warrant.

The response is that many Canadians started using Twitter to tell the minister what they're doing to save him having to spy.

Well, this is an interesting twist!

The anonymous account uses an IP address that originates within the House of Commons, the Ottawa Citizen reported Friday.

An IP address is a unique number that identifies computers in a network, which suggests that someone who works on Parliament Hill may be posting Toews's personal information online.

www.huffingtonpost.ca...

Seems the NDP might be the original source behind these Tweets. I know it is difficult to hold a majority government's feet to the fire, but this is a completely new method using the internet to inflame public sentiments. If Question Period doesn't work, take the issue to the people via Twitter.

reply to post by masqua


Ah, we are now living in a new age, aren't we? It kind of changes the old definition of two solitudes, imo, to reflect those who tweet and text vs those who don't. Is it just me, or are more people paying attention to the goings-on on the hill?

Originally posted by masqua

Seems the NDP might be the original source behind these Tweets. I know it is difficult to hold a majority government's feet to the fire, but this is a completely new method using the internet to inflame public sentiments. If Question Period doesn't work, take the issue to the people via Twitter.

Sadly, it is a tactic that they will soon regret (when it inevitably turns its attention to them).

Politicians...when will they ever learn.

reply to post by aboutface


Three solitudes: French & English plus the newly aware youth. Yes, I do think there is more interest on what's going down on the Hill these days. It could be that it's the secretiveness of the Harper Government that's causing it or just the economic situation. Whichever or both, there's no doubt people are perking up their collective ears lately.

reply to post by peck420




The one thing to remember about the leaderless NDP and their newfound popularity in the federal government is their youth. Many are the youngest MP's I've ever seen in parliament and they take to the net like it's their personal alternate universe.

If I was to have bet, I'd have put my money on Justin Trudeau as the source.

Originally posted by masqua
If I was to have bet, I'd have put my money on Justin Trudeau as the source.

If it was, all I have to say is this:

A leader that takes action, even if wrong, would be a better leader than one that does nothing.

If Trudeau is the source of this, and he owns it when it gets made public, I will have more respect for him than before. If he hides from it, less.

reply to post by masqua


This is probably my favorite thing to happen in Canada all year.



I thought this might fit nicely as well.

reply to post by tothetenthpower


Lies, lies and more lies.



I watch that show daily, even though I can't stand the host. It's priceless and on a par with Comedy Central.

btw... #Vickileaks got shut down

reply to post by masqua


Yeah you know, thanks to him I think that Canada will have a privacy awakening, which will make it REALLY hard for Stephen Harpet to continue passing draconian laws and turn us into a police state.

Already these bills are dangerous and show no sign of letting up, so perhaps a campaign like this will make more Canadians aware of what's going on.

I was thinking it should be framed as how TelCo's are going to up the price of all services if they are required to go through with this propsed legislation, we all know those costs are going to be marked up, and then passed down..

~Tenth

reply to post by tothetenthpower


It's about time. The tax revenues slated for prisons, F-35's, new US style Federal prisons and a slew of other expenses like bill C-30 is a 'secret' which cannot leave the PMO.

Unreal for a government voted in for transparency and conservatism.

reply to post by masqua


Well only voted in cause we as Canadians split the vote, god those are dark times in our history, at least for me

Hopefully we can get another election before 2014...by then I fear Canada will be a shadow of it's former self.

The only way to get rid of Harper, is for a strong Liberal party.

Canada is naturally centralist, we need our centralist party (Liberals) on their game, before the far right (CPC), and followed by the far left (NDP) cause severe damage to Canada.

reply to post by peck420


Then there's also public opinion, which Harper really pays attention too. The fight is on, though, with Canadians having a good chuckle at the expense of the government and spreading that sense of humour far and wide through the internet.



Update on the vikileaks account:

Starting on Feb. 14, an unidentified user employed Twitter to broadcast deeply personal and private details of Mr. Toews’s marital breakdown – information obtained from affidavits that are nevertheless publicly available from a Winnipeg court.

Late Friday, the Twitter page was shut down after this final post: "I set up this project to make a point, not ensnare innocent people in a government witch hunt,” the last post to @vikileaks30 said, before the page disappeared.

link

That still leaves the #TellVicEverything Twitter account with the @ToewsVic hashtag.

Did the original account have an effect? You be the judge:

Bill C-30, which the Conservatives have named the Protecting Children from Internet Predators Act, would require telecommunications service providers to give police a person’s name, address, phone numbers, e-mail address and Internet Protocol address – which identifies a person on a computer – upon request and without a warrant.

In an about-face Wednesday, the Harper government blinked in the face of a backlash over the legislation and said it’s now prepared to accept a broad range of changes to a bill criticized as a major intrusion into Canadians’ privacy.

Under the bill as written, companies would also be forced to adapt their equipment so that authorities could monitor the actions of subscribers. Those authorities would have to obtain a judicial warrant, however, before they could track the mobile-phone movements and online activities of people suspected of committing a crime.
*

*Same link as above

We'll see how it goes on Monday.

reply to post by masqua


I somehow think that some companies already know and that the government is merely catching up. Rogers has a new free program that will allow me to navigate to all my usual sites and not require a login or password. Apparently all I have to do is sing up! They appear to already have this information on me even though I do not store that info on my computer. :flame So if they do already know, the ones who don't are the police. Maybe all the govt would have to do is to access Rogers and Shaw's info to get around the need for oodles of warrants?

reply to post by masqua


I listened to Toews on CBC Radio's The House on Saturday morning. He was back pedaling big time about this Bill. I was hearing things that I haven't heard a Conservative Party member in Canada say in a while. I can't check right now, but I'll look later and see if the show is archived and link it here. It's actually pretty interesting.

The term "Fair Minded Canadians" must be the new Ottawa catch phrase. He said it at least 30 times in the half hour interview.

This is a win for Canada.

If just a twitter account caused such an uproar and is making the conservative government back peddle, than this just proves how powerful the internet is, and how afraid they are of it.

Good on his interwebz guys and gals!

And good on Justin Trudeau for starting all of this. ( although he probably won't take credit, we know it was you!)