BROTHER GETS BIGGER

This week, we learned the federal government wants telecommunications
companies to modify their networks to allow for far more extensive
government wiretapping of private e-mail, Internet and telephone
conversations. The move would represent an unprecedented invasion of
Canadians' privacy, and should be opposed on that basis.

At present, the courts issue approximately 2,000 warrants for
wiretapping a year, but the government proposal would give law
enforcement the ability to do upwards of 8,000 taps -- a day. These
sweeping extra powers for government snoops would open the door for
all sorts of abuses, despite the government's assurance that police
will still have to get a warrant before tracking a cellphone call or
computer exchange.

Public Safety Minister Anne McLellan says the changes are necessary
for dealing with organized crime syndicates and terrorist
organizations that communicate over the Internet. But these sorts of
groups are the most likely to use cryptography to shield their
conversations from police. Meanwhile ordinary Canadians, who do not
have the time or inclination to apply such secretive measures, will
be vulnerable to Big Brother-style 24 hour surveillance.

Before the federal government allows such a significant expansion of
monitoring capability, it should spell out exactly how such powers
would have prevented any of the violent crimes or acts of terror that
have been committed in Canada.

We suspect that the government would have a difficult time finding
even a few examples. In the United States, reports from the
Administrative Office of United States Courts have shown that the
majority of calls police intercept through wiretaps are innocent, and
the majority of the wiretaps they place are used to investigate
"moral" crimes, such as drug trafficking and gambling. Assuming the
Canadian statistics are similar, we wonder, is it really worth
sacrificing Canadians' privacy so that the government may play
thought police and crack down on essentially victimless crimes?

In the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the Canadian government
has ample reason to focus on preventing terrorism. But it should be
doing so without resort to excessive intrusion into our private
lives. At some point people may well start to ask who constitutes the
real threat to Canadians' cherished way of life.