MOST Canadians believe they live in a democracy that two generations fought and died to protect; that their western civilization is preferable to living under despotic or totalitarian regimes.
But the comfort zone of our freedom has been under piecemeal attack since 9-11.
A Liberal government approved a secret surveillance program in 2005 that allowed Canadians' phone calls and Internet activity to be monitored. It was cancelled after a former Supreme Court judge pointed out that Canadian law required police to get a warrant for such activity.
It has now come to light that Defence Minister Peter MacKay authorized essentially the same program in 2011 by a ministerial decree - thus avoiding scrutiny by Parliament.
True, the Communications Security Establishment is not eavesdropping, but said to be collecting patterns of activity. But it is doing that by logging every phone call and the activity of every Internet address. This sweeping electronic surveillance was, until this week, secret.
Just how much security is too much is a difficult question to answer, but the place to have that debate in a democracy is in its elected Parliament.
Perhaps the Conservatives were attempting to do just that with their infamous online spying bill of 2012 (Bill C-30), the one Public Safety Minister Vic Toews said we should support or side with the child pornographers. In any event, the Tories quietly pulled the bill a year later in the face of country-wide opposition. Then, as now, democracy requires defending.
