Mama Government: Protecting You from Yourself
There is a bill currently pending in the Canadian Parliament introduced by Joy Smith, a member of the Conversative Party. She introduced this bill speaking about it being used to stop human trafficking and child pornography. Fortunately, these are all things that are illegal under Canadian Law. So that makes you wonder exactly what MP Smith is wanting to accomplish.
Michael Geist did the leg work to look through this bill and pull out some of the things in it that it’s supposed to accomplish:
- an ISP licensing system, administered by the CRTC, that is defined far too broadly (it could conceivably tag you as an ISP if you have an open Wi-Fi network in your home)
- Know Your Subscriber rules that would require ISPs to refuse service to any past offenders (or immediately end service and notify the government if they find out someone is a past offender)
- Power for the Minister of Industry in Canada to order sites blocked that fall under certain guidelines, offering fines and imprisonment for ISP officers who refuse
- Power for the Minister of Industry to allow shortcuts to facilitate e-data searches
I am quite sure that MP Smith only has the best intentions in mind and if it were her household and she wanted to block what her kids wanted to see on the Internet, I have no issues with this. My issue is the same one that I have with the majority of social conservatives (and, to note, this one of the places where circular politics comes into play since many Governmental Liberals would agree with this viewpoint in pursuit of the Nanny State). She is trying to use the Government to make decisions for people. Child Porn and Human Trafficking are already illegal. You shouldn’t need another law tacted on top of it. Yes, there are some sites out there that are offensive and perpetuate “hate” speech. However, it’s still speech and isn’t breaking a law. It isn’t the place of Government to come in and regulate what you can or can’t say so long as you don’t infringe on someone else.
Instead of pursuing something like this, perhaps MP Smith could turn her attention to something other than trying to mother Canada with this law. Me personally, I’m just waiting for someone in Congress to try and put this forward in the US. My answer then will be the same as my answer now: thanks, but no thanks. I already have a mother. I don’t need a government full of them.