Tech Leaders Worried about C-51? How Unpatriotic!
At least, that’s how things appear to work in Tory MP Laurie Hawn’s world.
According to Conservative MP Laurie Hawn, if your company makes something that can be used to spread terrorist messages, then you are not a patriotic Canadian. If terrorists use the paper that your company makes to print flyers, or your phone company to connect to the web, your car company to deliver a note, or your oil company to fuel up that car, then Hawn appears to believe that you are a business that is, and Iquote:
“…profiting from the dispersal of this type of horrific material… [and] should seriously reconsider their business model and lack of commitment to the values that bind us as Canadians.”
By this reasoning, if terrorists use your ATM to pay for their printing or if they buy their stamps at your grocery store, then you are not loyal to your country. Do you hear that Canadian Tire, RIM, Bell, Rogers, GM Canada, Husky Oil, Loblaws, Royal Bank, TD, BMO, Telus, and every other business in Canada? You’re all on notice.
This is the message that the Conservative party is delivering to the executives, employees and shareholders of Canadian commercial enterprises. Hawn’s comments to business were made in response to an open letter penned by over 60 technology leaders, who wrote a thoughtful and critical assessment of the economic impact of the government’s controversial Spy Bill, C-51. These business leaders are standing with over 225,000 Canadians who are speaking out at StopC51.ca to call on the government to withdraw the bill.
It’s not clear why Hawn, who has never run a tech business, sees fit to advise some of Canada’s most successful Internet entrepreneurs on how technology operates in the contemporary economy and how that translates into patriotism.
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