Hear No Evil? The Extension of the Calgary Big Brother Program

"It's to take away the anonymity," said Calgary Alderman John Mar. "Whoever you call, if you're trying to use it for an illegitimate use, we can track it and we can forward that information on to the proper authorities."

http://www.calgarysun.com/news/alberta/2009/07/15/10138456-sun.html

Floating the typical safety, security, law and order platform, the City of Calgary has joined forces with City Police in yet another Big Brother type initiative. In addition to seizing vehicles from suspected neer-do-wells, fingerprinting those using the Calgary Drop in Centre as a sanctuary from harsh weather, harassing citizens in local nightclubs to determine whether they are enjoying a beverage with a gang member, the City will now record your telephone conversations on selected payphones to determine whether you are up to no good.

"We want to to show Calgary is being aggressive and moving forward and taking away the tools used by criminals," said Mar.

http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/City+hopes+warning+stickers+Calgary+payphones+will+discourage+criminal+activity/1790663/story.html

Is there any end to the intrusion on privacy rights in this City and Province?

Telus' corporate response that citizens need not worry about someone eavesdropping on their conversations should provide absolutely no assurance. For the bottom line is, to determine whether a caller is "up to no good" obviously requires listening to conversations -- many of which may be completely innocuous. Put another way, determining whether the caller is making a drug deal over a payphone obviously requires eavesdropping and any suggestion by Telus to the contary is simply misleading!

At some point citizens of this country need to resist law and order initiatives sold on the campaign of safety and security in order to protect the civil rights that all citizens are afforded. To borrow a rather apt comment from Calgary defence lawyer Michael Bates:

"Alberta is undeniably a safe place to live and we need not accept every politician's sounding of alarms as genuine and we need not accept police officers being given more power to curtail liberties as a positive outcome. The only thing we have to fear is fear itself...and just how much freedom a government can take from its citizens when they are afraid".

http://calgarycriminallawyer.blogspot.com/2009/07/nameless-unreasoning-unjustified-terror.html

Apparently the government can take a lot....

Big Brother is listening...

David G. Chow
Criminal Defence Lawyer

http://www.calgarydefence.com/