The Written Word
for May 17, 2000

Well, now, so the government of Canada now has about 2000 pieces of information on every adult Canadian and the Privacy Commissioner, Bruce Phillips is mad as hell – and so he should be. This is simply a culmination of government abuse that goes back several decades.

The notion of a census probably came about in the United States which has the right entrenched in their constitution. And while a census was a pretty harmless thing while it just told government how many people it had and probably gave it some sort of notion as to how large an army it could muster it has, since about 1966, become ever more prying into Canadian’s private affairs.

Before going further, let me answer the question so often raised – if you’ve nothing to hide, why are you worried? The plain answer to that is what I have to hide is my privacy. Privacy, in and of itself, is a fundamental right of free people.

Under the Income Tax Act what information you give them is privileged and cannot, under any circumstances be disclosed to anyone else. That’s what the government tells us. But why would we believe the government?

Because of technological advances it is possible to collate all public information and all private information on a single file. Everything from the amount of your mortgage, how well you pay your bills, what political party you have supported, whether or not you’ve ever had a dose of clap and how many toilets are in your house are all bits of information the government has on your file – or at least can have with a minimum of effort.

Back in 1966 when the Canada Pension Plan was announced we were advised by no less a personage than Prime Minister Lester Pearson that all information disclosed as well as the PIN number would be confidential. Now you can scarcely buy a chocolate bar without having to disclose that PIN number. Then our census forms got longer and longer – and yes they did want to know how many loos there are in your house. Then, for every tenth citizen, there was an even longer form of census which many Canadians simply refused to fill out and for the first time you were asked to snitch on your neighbour. There were hundreds of refusals but to my knowledge, no prosecutions.

Why is this happening?

Well, for one thing the government can make money off these files. So far there is no evidence of actually selling the information but it’s commonplace for government departments and agencies to give out broad demographical information to private industry. Why is it, do you suppose, that you get Elm Street Magazine in your Toronto Globe and Mail while the family across town does not? Someone has told Elm Street how much money you and your distant neighbor make and your higher income qualifies you for the mag. And where do you suppose the magazine got that information? And they pay for that so that your private disclosings are flogged by the government.

It also happens because bureaucrats are congenital snoops. It goes with the territory. There is never the slightest curiosity in a bureaucrat that isn’t reflected in a question that must be answered.

Now that we have all this information centralized, does anyone really believe that your secrets will be kept that way? Do you suppose for a second that when the police want information from your file that they’ll be denied it. And if they are today, what about tomorrow?

Bruce Phillips is right to be angry … Canadians across the country ought to be angry too and should be taking this matter up with their MPs … except Liberal ones for you can be sure they’ll just do as they always do, go along with their masters.