For somewhere between two and three pages, Peter MacKay's anti-cyberbullying bill is a thing of beauty - necessary and pragmatic.
If an intimate image is splashed across the Internet, police can seize cellphones and tablets. Those who put up sexually explicit pictures can be forced to pay to take them down.
We would applaud Mr. MacKay, but his bill goes on for another 65 pages.
Despite not being particularly infamous for Instagram posts, terrorists are among the bill's subjects. Perhaps police need a greater variety of surveillance techniques available when tracking terrorists, but combining that measure with this bill seems disingenuous.
The proposed legislation also helps cops collar arch criminals with illegal cable hookups. While a crackdown may be handy in cutting down Game of Thrones spoilers, it still has no place in this bill.
The bill is essentially the Conservatives' attempt to dig up elements of previously defeated Bill C-30 and to get it passed by pitting privacy advocates against parents who just want to protect their children from online exploitation.
We shouldn't have to choose. Benjamin Franklin once said those who would trade liberty for temporary safety deserve neither. Likewise, Canada shouldn't trade its privacy for the illusion of online invulnerability.
Posting lurid photos without the subject's consent is already a crime, written in black and white. Where we find ourselves in a grey area is in the enormous store of data that flows from telecom companies to law enforcement agencies without the inconvenience of a court order. For MacKay, some pieces of information must seem more intimate than others.
