Here we go again...

Under presumed pressure from the RCMP, Canada's Public Safety Minister, Peter Van Loan, will be submitting a new bill for internet wiretapping in Canada.

You may remember four years ago, back in 2005, I was very carefully watching a bill put forward by the last Liberal government: the Lawful Access Proposal. This proposal would have required law enforcement officials to obtain a warrant for their surveillance, and that request would be a matter of public record.

As usual, Michael Geist has details on his blog. News 1130 is reporting that police will be able to access certain types of information without a warrant.

Nothing is quite clear yet, but I urge all of you to monitor this situation closely. If our government wants to give police additional powers, those powers must be tempered by judicial oversight. Politicians have shown us time and time again that they're perfectly willing to legislate technologies that they don't understand. This is unacceptable. It's a lot harder to repeal a bad law than to correct a bad bill before it's passed.