Follow up to yesterdays post

I'm not one to hop on the online petition bandwagon, but this one is special. Open Media is hosting a petition of sorts to voice your opposition to bill C-30. Take a few seconds out of your day and tell the idiots in Ottawa that your right to privacy is not something you're willing to give up.

Parliament strikes again!

Recently MP Vick Toews has been vigorously pushing a piece of legislation in parliament that would give law enforcement the power to request private information from ISPs about it's customers internet habits. It would give police the ability to go to an ISP and request the information for a specific person, that information would include ip addresses, browsing habits etc. In a nutshell, the police would be able to look at an individuals information and be able to see what websites they've visited, what files they've downloaded and perhaps even read that persons emails. The idea is to make it easier to investigate serious criminal offenses such as child pornography and terrorism.

While extreme, I can see the benefit something like this would have. It could make it much easier to investigate, convict or stop child predators. It would provide a wealth of intelligence on suspected terrorists. There are a lot of situations where this type of information could justifiably be used by law enforcement. Here's the thing though; they can already do that.

The only significant difference this bill would make, is that law enforcement would now be free to gain access to that information without a warrant. The court wouldn't be involved at any point prior to an actual charge being laid.

I don't think I can properly underscore how serious a violation of Canadian rights this is. It is literally the same thing as the police coming to your home while you're at work and rifling through your possessions without a warrant. They show up, the landlord lets them in, and they're free to look at everything in your home.

The reaction from opposition was predictable, they questioned the privacy concerns, and the obvious breach of Canadian rights in a session of parliament. Mr. Toews, not content to simply say it was needed, accused the opposition of "standing with the child predators". Forget the outright disgust of using such an accusation at all, he did so in the house of commons. The most sacred room in Canadian government. He accused a member of parliament of supporting child predators because he rose an objection to the violation of our rights as Citizens of this country.

Mr. Toews should resign. It's as simple as that. But wait! He's not done yet. Canadians weren't very happy with the proposition of any police officer who felt like it, going to an ISP and getting a list of all the twisted and perverted porn they've been watching lately (you really don't want to know..) so they started a Twitter campaign. Sending the most mundane tweets about their daily lives with the hashtag  #TellVicEverything. The reasoning is that he wants our personal privacy rights to be abolished, so we might as well just tell him everything up front.


Toews recently did an interview in which he stated that he wasn't aware of the section in the bill that would allow for ANY police officer to make this request for information. 


Link to the interview here

So this tells us that one of two things has happened:

1. A member of parliament vigorously pushed and defended a bill that would abolish a large portion of Canadian citizens' right to privacy, and remove judicial oversight in law enforcement investigations. He defended the bill so vigorously as to essentially accuse another MP of being a child pornographer. He did all of this WITHOUT READING THE DAMN BILL!

or:

2. A member of parliament vigorously pushed and defended a bill that he KNEW would abolish Canadian privacy rights and remove judicial oversight from police investigations and now he's backpedaling and trying to deny the whole thing by saying "he wasn't aware".

These are quite literally the only two possible outcomes. Either he was completely and totally incompetent in a situation where such incompetence can curtail the rights of Canadian citizens, or he was complicit in attempting to curtail those rights.

Either option is far beyond disgusting. The mans behavior in parliament alone should have him out on his backside. Add to that the utter incompetence, or the complicity with regards to severely damaging the rights of Canadian citizens (not sure which one it is yet, evil or stupid?) and Vic Toews should be submitting his resignation.

He doesn't deserve to cast his eyes on the house of commons, to say nothing of participating in it.

Mr. Toews, I've been a life long Conservative voter. The NDP, Liberals and Green Party should be pretty pleased with you, because I, like many other life long Conservatives have now become an undecided voter.

Thanks for that.

A little random meandering

I'm not entirely sure what's been up with me lately. I haven't been sleeping right, I'm cranky (well crankier) at work and have a lot less ambition to DO my work. I haven't been putting in any overtime hours so I don't think I'm burned out. When I do sleep I can't seem to get myself awake for hours after I get out of bed. I think perhaps I've been drinking too much lately, but even that I've cut out recently with little change. Meh, maybe it's just February.. Yeah, we'll blame it on February. It's like one giant string of Mondays all in a row.

I know this barely counts as a blog entry, but hell, there's maybe 3 people reading this on a regular basis and I'm one of em, so I'm not gonna worry about it.

Meh.

Personal boundaries

I'm private. I've mentioned it before, I'm sure I have. Despite the fact that I've started blogging my random issues and thoughts publicly, I use Twitter and Facebook regularly and so on; I'm a private person.

I don't share every little detail of my personal life with all who happen to be on my Facebook friends list, when I do update a frustrated status it's usually a pretty generic "I hate Mondays" type comment. Of course, occasionally people will comment on such statuses and ask what's wrong. When that happens I don't follow it up with a detailed explanation telling everyone how this particular issue has unfolded. I keep the details to myself. I'm happy this way, and honestly I wish more people would do the same.

I don't go out socializing 4 times a week, in fact I rarely do. The most "outside socializing" I've had in the last two weeks has been a trip to the grocery store, and buying dog treats at Walmart. When I'm at work, I'm a little more social than normal, and in all honesty in order to do my job I need to be. None of this is to say I lack social skills, I'm actually quite adept at customer service jobs, more so than most I dare say. In fact, my previous position at work required me to speak to a wide array of customers, build working relationships with them and all that ensued. So I have the skills, I'm just a very private person. And like I said, I'm happy this way.

Now. That leads to my random topic of the day. Touching. I hate it. It's not that I feel violated when someone puts their hand on my shoulder while I show them something at my desk, I just don't like the experience. I work in an office where sexual harassment and other such things are taken with a common sense attitude. Off color jokes are constantly made, in fact I make them myself from time to time, and nobody takes it out of proportion. The environment is very relaxed. In our day to day work life there are much bigger stresses to worry about than someone telling a dick joke in the smoking area, and most everyone seems to agree. It's a nice way to handle it. Usually when someone does cross the line, they either recognize that immediately or it's politely pointed out to them so they can avoid the same mistake later.

That being said, there are one or two colleagues of mine who don't seem to appreciate my need to have my personal space respected. Again, I'm private, and that desire for privacy extends to the physical area around me. I'm not saying that I need all people to stand 6 feet away from me at all times, just don't crowd me. I'm sure most can understand what I mean.

One coworker in particular seems to feel the need to poke at me. Literally, poke me in the shoulder or other such playful (not sexual) behavior. I know to this person it seems like it's funny, particularly because each physical contact is met with my very annoyed "Don't touch me". Now the coworker in question is a fantastic person. Very nice, helpful when possible etc.. it's not someone I dislike and you have no idea how many of THOSE people I work with.

But this person just can't seem to understand that I'm not kidding when I say don't touch me. I don't mean it in a negative way, I don't mean to say that it's inappropriate behavior, I just mean to say Don't Touch Me! I don't have a phobia of physical contact, I don't feel assaulted or violated. I don't feel "dirty" or "unclean". I just don't have the need to be touched by anyone who isn't in that very small circle of people I consider to be trusted friends. There are very few people I consider to be in that circle, I can count them on one hand. From one of those people, a pat on the back, a poke in the arm or even a light smack on the back of the head when I'm being difficult.. I can handle that. These people are a welcome presence in my personal space. First, because I trust them, second, because to an extent, they understand my boundaries and respect them. These people have earned the right to move a little beyond my boundaries from time to time.

Now, my coworkers actions will continue to happen because I don't see the need to make a formal complaint about it. That would be way out of proportion as the coworker in question doesn't mean any harm, and probably doesn't understand how much it truly bothers me. Were I to explain it to the person, they would no doubt either feel horrible for it (which believe it or not I would't want them to feel) or laugh it off as me being cranky (which is often the case when I grumble at work).

I guess my point for anyone reading is simply this. When someone expresses a need for personal boundaries, most times they are very serious about it. When you have a personality like mine, and boundaries such as mine, those limits are an ingrained part of who you are as a person, and they need to be respected.

I understand that not everyone shares that particular need. I understand that those of you without that need don't "get it". The point is, it's not important that you understand it, or get it, or even know why I have those boundaries. What's important, is that you understand the boundaries are there and for no other reason than that, don't fucking touch me!

And even when you lay it out, step by step...

I was at work today  as I often am on a Monday. And I was in the smoking area outside and somehow the topic of last nights post came up. Not that a lot of people in my immediate social circle are aware that I blog, but somehow someone brought it up.

The conversation was about SOPA. And my previous post about how people are unaware of the impending Canadian version was accurate, people 1. Have no idea what Bill C-11 is or have never heard of it, or 2. Don't understand the implications of the bill.

So I reiterated my explanation, gave a brief summary of what the bill could allow large companies to do, and how the process could be abused. I explained, if I had a blog (hypothetically right?) in which I discussed lollipops (for the record I hate the things..) and some big wig at Rogers decided for whatever petty reason that he doesn't like blogs about lollipops, he could have my blog removed.

I was met with looks of utter confusion..

I explained, all he had to do was file a complaint of copyright infringement against my blog.

"But it had nothing at all to do with Rogers.. what would that have to do with it?" were the assorted replies from my baffled co workers. And I explained to them, it would have absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with my blog. The fact is, that that executive would be able to make the complaint against my blog, a totally false claim, and the service provider who hosted my blog would be immediately obligated by law to remove it. No investigation, no proof (doesn't this sound familiar?) no nothing.

So the point was made. People were genuinely surprised by this. I can't fault them, because most of the people who were present were middle aged women who care little for technology (did I mention I work for a web hosting company?) and even less for politics. That's fine, I can understand that they were unaware of the proposed bill. And, after sufficient explanation they were seemingly as appalled by it as they should be (Though I'm certain they forgot the conversation moments later).

Well, one of the more tech savvy people in the building (he works in tech support, duh!) comes out to have a smoke. He's as close as I've ever come to meeting a real life hippy. It's not hard to tell after several minutes of conversation that he enjoys a little puff puff here and there, he enjoys long winded conversations about the most random of topics (I swear to God he tried to have a conversation about anal fissures one day..). He's just, a hippy. Well, he, as he does, immediately jumped into the conversation to which he knew nothing about. He does this quite often. People often avoid going out to smoke while he's there for fear of being railroaded into a pointless and rambling conversation. For the record, he means well and he's a friendly enough guy, but still. You all know someone like that.

But I digress..

So, I recapped what I was talking about. His response was as startling as it was moronic;

"They'll never control the internet."

I'm amazed. Utterly and thoroughly amazed. How could someone miss the point so entirely???

THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT THEY WANT!!!

They WANT to control it. And this bill will let them do just that. The bill is a step by step instruction manual on how to limit freedom of expression online. I can't even begin to explain how incensed I am at the response. In fact, here I am several hours later at home, relaxing, having a beer, and I'm still vibrating just thinking about the utter IDIOCY of that statement.

People, wake the hell up. This is not one of those political things that "the activists" scream and moan about that actually makes no difference. This isn't PETA protesting the 30 seconds of video depicting mice in a documentary because it's cruel to the mice to use their likeness without permission. This isn't some over complicated political issue that isn't going to affect the middle and lower class.

This is an affront to our rights as citizens of this country. The lobbyists pushing this bill want nothing more than to be able to control what we are allowed to say online. That's the bottom line, that is exactly what they want. There is no exaggerating here. This isn't hyperbole. That is EXACTLY what they want, and the government is starting to see the benefit of that as well.

But hey, who gives a shit right? Cause: "They'll never control the internet man.."

The internet is about to die, and nobody seems to notice..

Since it's inception, the internet has been a haven for free speech. It's an open system where anyone can log on and have literally countless different ways to express themselves to the world. Beyond that, it's also made it remarkably easier to find people around the world who share your beliefs. Beliefs that perhaps aren't as appreciated in your local community or social network. The internet has brought people from around the world together in ways that would have been incomprehensible just 25 years ago.

The entire globe has become a smaller, more interconnected community as a result. Services like Wikipedia allow access to an unprecedented amount of information in an instant. All one needs do is perform a quick search and receive access to a wealth of information on virtually any topic you could think of.

Services like MSN messenger, and Hotmail provided an unprecedented level of communication possibilities. No longer were there prohibitive costs in keeping in daily contact with friends or family that lived far away from you. You would simply log in and be instantly connected. Services like this have evolved even further with tools such as Skype which allows you to have face to face video chats with people from anywhere on the planet.

Sites like Youtube have provided amateur media creators to share their work with the world. A young fledgling director trying to have his message heard no longer has to mortgage his home and navigate the twisted world of talent agents and producers to get feedback on his creations. Now he can simply upload it to Youtube for all the world to see.

The unprecedented level of freedom of expression provided by the internet is perhaps the single greatest achievement since the invention of the telephone. It has literally changed our entire society, from business practices to personal relationships there are few aspects of life that the internet hasn't changed. The internet in itself is the very definition of freedom of expression. A system that derives it's success from the fact that it isn't regulated in any serious way.

Well, that's on the verge of changing. Governments around the world are starting to realize that the internet does something that they'd seemingly not considered until lately. It allows us, the people, to control the message. One could say that the media and the press do the same, but media companies can be influenced, and despite the popular belief that we have  a free press, we don't. Our newspapers and news networks are owned by media companies. Corporations that no longer care about such lofty ideals as freedom of the press, or freedom of speech. They purchase news outlets seeing not freedom for the people, but a crafty new marketing tool to influence the very culture the press should be protecting.

Recently in the United States two pieces of legislation faced a harsh reaction from US citizens. SOPA and PIPA were being discussed, and very nearly implemented as law. These laws would have given power to media companies and the government to censor any message they didn't care for. The proposed laws would have made it possible for the government to shut down a website that had been accused of copyright infringement. Yes, you read that right. "Accused". There would be no due process, no investigation or hearing to determine if shutting down the site were warranted. No warrants, no witnesses required. Nothing. Plain and simply, the accused would have literally been guilty until proven innocent.

How does that affect you you might ask? After all, you don't have a website with infringing content right? It doesn't matter. Let's say, like myself, you occasionally blogged. Now, let's say that recently you had a bad experience with the local school board. We'll say that they suspended your child because he was of a particular religious belief. Horrible right? Well let's say that you decided to focus your outrage into an online explanation of what happened. Then, you log in the next day to find your blog removed. Having caught wind of your whistle blowing, the school board has filed a complaint stating that your blog was being used to share copyrighted information. Ridiculous right? Of course, they simply didn't like the message you were presenting the public. But it doesn't matter. The proposed laws would make it mandatory for your service provider to remove the site entirely. No investigation, no proof.

The potential for abuse of such a law is obvious I would think. So the American people took to their phones, and email accounts and let their representatives know in no uncertain terms that it was not acceptable.

Problem solved right? No. The same lobby groups that pushed for these laws in the US are pushing them here in Canada, with significantly less publicity I might add..

Take a look at the following link.

http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/6257/125/

The proposed bill C-11 would incorporate the same ideas into a Canadian law. Run a website aimed at disparaging Bell business practices? They can get you. Voicing complaints about Rogers poor service and internet throttling practices? One accusation of infringement and you're gone.

What really bothers me is that virtually nobody seems to realize that we're about to lose the internet. Contrary to what some believe, the internet isn't "owned" by corporations. It isn't controlled by companies, it's owned and controlled by the people. Us!

These bills aim to change that. They are literally an attack on free speech. And nobody seems to give a damn. In 5 years when you're no longer able to voice your opinion online, when every status update you submit to Facebook is first reviewed for content, just remember, you had the chance to save that freedom, and you didn't seem to care.

The dangers of chastising your creative writing staff through email...

The company that employs me is like many corporations, highly skilled at making various processes overly redundant. For example, the process with which my employer tracks the hours I work in a given week:

Step 1: When arriving at the office we need to swipe a magnetic pass card that allows us access. Each time we swipe our card, it is recorded and the information is sent to pay roll. At the end of the day, we are required to swipe the card again indicating that we are leaving.

Step 2: We are required each day to keep a spreadsheet indicating exactly what we did during the day, and how long each activity took. So if I work on one project for an hour and a half, I enter the project name into one column, then what I did in another, the status of the project after I worked on it in another, and then finally I would enter 1.5 hours in the last column. This needs to be emailed to our management at the end of the work day.

Step 3: There is a sheet outside the door to every department with all of the relevant employees names on it. On this sheet we are required to indicate what time we arrived, what time we were in and out for our breaks and lunches, and what time we left for the day.

Step 4: This step isn't always used, but when working extra hours, or less hours than our normal shift, we are required to email payroll and our management and indicate what hours we worked, and the reason for the discrepancy.

I am not the most dedicated employee when it comes to this process. In fact, I often forget to swipe my card at the end of the day. The door that the card opens does not require a card swipe to leave, only to enter the building.

My manager sent me an email yesterday as I'd forgotten to scan out on Tuesday. My reply follows:

Hi (Managers name omitted),

I offer the humblest of apologies and pledge that moving forward, I 
will dedicate less of my limited attention span to quality work and 
focus more of it on the overly redundant process of logging my hours 
worked (i.e: Scanning in and out, sending an email, completing a time 
sheet that logs how every minute of my day has been spent and signing 
the in/out sheet in the hallway).

Certainly every step of that process is absolutely essential to keeping 
track of what hours I've worked, and I've no doubt that should one step 
of that process not be followed with exact precision that the entire 
Human Resources departments of (company name) and (parent company) 
will fall into chaos and confusion, leading to the inevitable result of 
(parent company) collapsing as a corporation.

And of course, after the collapse of such a large corporation brought 
on by my seeming unwillingness to follow the proper time tracking 
procedures, (parent company) would no doubt be left with billions in 
outstanding debts. They would naturally have little recourse but to 
sell all of the employees and their families into slavery in some east 
Asian country, leaving said employees to wallow in despair for the 
rest of their lives. Performing menial tasks such as cleaning toilets 
and giving piggy back rides to the children of their wealthy new slave 
masters.

With such an influx of free labor of course, the east asian economy 
would face such an economic crisis as to rival the great depression. 
The loss of paying jobs which have now been filled with indentured 
laborers, would affect the economic stability of the region and 
continue to reverberate through the global economy. Entire nations 
would collapse into revolt and anarchy. Billions would die in the 
ensuing chaos and human civilization as we know it would come to a 
grinding halt. Leaving the survivors with little choice but to revert 
to the hunter/gatherer ways of our ancient ancestors.

Over time, humankinds' progress would be forgotten as the survivors 
focus their attention on a simpler life. Gone are the scientific, 
literary and cutural wonders of the last 2000 years. Gone are the 
cities that once marked the center of human progress and evolution, 
abandonned in the great revolts and now taken back by nature. No, 
humanity would not even reflect a shadow of it's former glory. It would 
truly be the end of the world. 

And all because I didn't scan out on Tuesday.

I am a horrible human being.

Andrew (last name)
Content Coordinator

What makes me really chuckle is that I know she'll be attempting to read this lengthy email from her Blackberry.

I love my job some days.

Note: I feel the need to clarify that the email I received from my manager that precipitated this reply was not actually chastising me, nor was it ill intended. It was a pleasant request for clarification of my hours. The reply was a result of my being a little too bored, and having had a tad too much coffee.