Via Ottawa Citizen:

The Supreme Court of Canada’s landmark ruling that emergency wiretapping without a warrant is unconstitutional — which could pave the way for a new federal law that better safeguards privacy rights — is being used by critics to revive their attacks on the Harper government’s controversial Internet surveillance bill.

“It’s a huge blow to the Conservative’s Internet snooping bill,” NDP justice critic Jack Harris told Postmedia News.

[…]
In a unanimous ruling, the country’s top court said police have an obligation to “give notice to intercepted parties” in the form of a court-issued warrant; that notice can be issued after the investigation.

This would “enhance the ability of targeted individuals to identify and challenge invasions to their privacy and seek meaningful remedies,” according to the judgment released Friday.

Interestingly, this came about because of some actual criminals, who’d kidnapped and tortured a convicted drug lord for 25 days, had their due process violated by these practices. While they are certainly guilty, it’s absolutely appalling that the police couldn’t simply ask a judge for a warrant before grabbing the information on these people. I can’t imagine any situation where a judge would say no in a case like that.

So, now that the SCOC has slapped Harper’s hand, what kind of retribution do you expect he’ll exact?

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