But the CBC has
confirmed The Globe’s report that Government House Leader
Peter Van Loan does not intend to move on the bill before Parliament rises in
June.
The extensive committee work that will be required to allay the concerns of
privacy commissioners and of critics within the Conservatives’ own caucus – who
say the bill is an unwarranted invasion of privacy – will not get underway for
months.
And it is that timeline that appears to doom the bill.
The lawful access legislation is controversial, to say the least, because it
would compel Internet service providers to store data on their clients’
activities, and to provide identifying information on those clients to police
without their first obtaining a warrant.
When Mr. Toews famously said critics of the bill could “either stand with us
or with the child pornographers,” he became the subject of a hilarious
(#TellVicEverything) and disturbing (anonymous threats and the tweeting of the
details of his divorce) social-media campaign.
The government, acknowledging the bill was flawed, agreed to send it to the
public safety committee for study before having it voted on by the House.
By keeping the bill from the committee until autumn, the chances of C-30
being rewritten by that committee and then passed by both the House and the
Senate before Mr. Harper has Parliament prorogued, as many anticipate he will,
in preparation for a new Throne Speech appear beyond unlikely.
Mr. Toews disagrees. The government, he says, is “intent on proceeding.”
Time, as the cliché says, will tell.
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