Prime Minister Stephen Harper has been known to belt out a Beatles tune or two, and even a bit of Bachman Turner Overdrive, but if his government needed a theme song, it could easily adopt a 1983 hit by the Police:
鈥淓very breath you take, every move you make, every bond you break, every step you take 鈥� I鈥檒l be watching you.鈥�
The British rock group鈥檚 song voices the thoughts of a besotted lover, or perhaps a stalker. The words are a little creepy. The federal government鈥檚 latest moves regarding surveillance indicate an administration that seems to be increasingly paranoid and controlling. That鈥檚 downright scary.
In an email last week, the Government Operations Centre in Ottawa asked all federal departments to keep track of all protests across the country.
鈥淭he Government Operations Centre is seeking your assistance in compiling a comprehensive listing of all known demonstrations which will occur either in your geographical area or that may touch on your mandate,鈥� says the email, which was leaked to Postmedia News.
鈥淲e will compile this information and make this information available to our partners, unless ,of course, this information is not to be shared and not available on open sources. In the case of the latter, this information will only be used by the GOC for our Situational Awareness.鈥�
The GOC falls under Public Safety sa国际传媒鈥檚 umbrella and provides, according to its website, 鈥渁n all-hazards integrated federal emergency response to events (potential or actual hazards, natural or human-induced, either accidental or intentional) of national interest.鈥�
鈥淭he GOC continuously monitors events of national significance (24/7) and shares information to senior officials, provincial/territorial (P/T) governments and/or the private sector. The GOC is connected to multiple information and intelligence sources 鈥� media, law enforcement, intelligence organizations, emergency management organizations, private sector bodies 鈥� at international, federal government, P/T and NGO levels.鈥�
It鈥檚 comforting to know a government agency is keeping track of such things as earthquakes, floods, forest fires and the 2011 crisis at Japan鈥檚 Fukushima nuclear plant. Those are things to be feared.
But all demonstrations? Was our security threatened by striking teachers as they paraded in front of Spectrum Community School on Burnside Road Thursday? Will the nation be at risk as people march toward Centennial Square today in the second annual SlutWalk, an event held to call attention to issues surrounding sexual assault? Is sa国际传媒 in danger when people gather in front of the sa国际传媒 legislature to protest rising ferry fares or changes to the Agricultural Land Reserve?
Peaceful demonstrations are part of a healthy democracy, the exercising of a basic right. If things get out of hand, local law enforcement agencies are on hand to protect the public good.
The public good is not served if federal agencies are deputized to monitor such demonstrations and send information to the GOC. In fact, such surveillance activity violates basic Charter rights, says a University of Ottawa intelligence specialist.
鈥淭he very nature of the blanket request and its unlimited scope, I think, puts it way over the line in terms of lawful activity,鈥� said Wesley Wark.
The only legal way to monitor a protest, he said, is if an agency established that the event would constitute a threat of civil disorder.
Instead of trolling for imaginary enemies, the GOC should turn its attention inward to real threats to public rights, and to a Prime Minister鈥檚 Office increasingly watching every move we make that doesn鈥檛 jibe with the Harper government鈥檚 philosophies. It should stand on guard for disaster, disease and enemies without, rather than regarding every dissenter as an enemy within.
We should be suspicious of a government that is suspicious of its own people.
