Stephen Harper's so-called anti-terror bill is so bad that 60 of Canada's leading tech companies, including Mozilla, Hootsuite and Slack, have just spoken out against it. Now it's time to get the biggest Internet company of them all, Google, to do the same.
Nearly 200,000 Canadians have already spoken out against Bill C-51 -- a terrifying bill that will create a secret police force with extraordinary powers and no oversight, give sweeping powers to CSIS to spy on Canadians with no warrant, and yet won't protect a single Canadian from terrorism.
Google's motto is "don't be evil" -- let's call on the tech giant to live up its principles and take a stance on Bill C-51.
Join us in calling on Google to take a stand against Harper's dangerous state surveillance bill.
The momentum against this law has been nothing short of astonishing. In February, 83% of Canadians supported this bill. Once they learned what was actually in it, support plummeted to 45% a month later -- and it's still dropping.
Earlier this week, 60 Canadian business people, entrepreneurs, and investors sent Prime Minister Stephen Harper an open letter warning that Bill C-51 criminalizes free expression and will damage international trust in Canada. In a separate public statement, Mozilla, creator of the Firefox web browser, noted that Bill C-51 will "undermine user trust, threaten the openness of the web, and reduce the security of the Internet and its users."
But we are running out of time. The government is scheduled to hold a final vote on the bill in the next few weeks. That's why these statements by business leaders are so well timed: we need to marshal all the opposition we can, from everywhere we can. Google, we're looking in your direction.
Just this week the Conservatives, despite their majority government, capitulated to the chorus of criticisms against the bill and introduced a few amendments. But they don't go nearly far enough: the worst of the bill is still very much in force. It will spy on innocent Canadians like us and it still gives unsupervised agencies way too much power.
Tell Google to publicly oppose Bill C-51 and stand up for Canadians.
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More information:
How C-51 will undermine Canada's business climate: An open letter from 60 Canadian business leaders, National Post, April 21, 2015
Makers of Firefox web browser "strongly oppose" Stephen Harper's Bill C-51, PressProgress, March 26, 2015
Support Plummets For Harper's Anti-Terror Bill, New Poll Shows, VICE Canada, March 17, 2015