Meanwhile, in Canada

The same government that considered the mandatory long form census so strong an invasion of privacy that it was worth destroying the continuity of the census data series is requiring ISPs to maintain extensive logs on users and to hand them over to police without warrants; ISPs are banned from telling customers of any government snooping unless given explicit permission by the police.

Tony Clement, back in 2010:

“It is not appropriate to compel citizens to divulge how many bedrooms they have in their houses, or what time they leave for work in the morning,” Clement said. “The government’s approach is about finding a better balance between collecting necessary data and protecting the privacy rights of Canadians.”

Vic Toews, Public Safety Minister, last week:

Critics of a bill that would give law enforcement new powers to access Canadians' electronic communications are aligning themselves with child pornographers, Canada's public safety minister says.

"He can either stand with us or with the child pornographers," Vic Toews said of Liberal public safety critic Francis Scarpaleggia during question period on Monday, after Scarpaleggia asked about a bill expected to be tabled Tuesday.

Odd that it's more of an intrusion to have to tell the government how many bedrooms you have than to #TellVicEverything about what sites you might be visiting while in the bedroom. Australia is no better.

Meanwhile, some Canadian universities will start letting IP folks trawl through faculty emails to see if anybody's sharing gated journal articles. I expect most folks at Toronto and Western to flip quickly over to Gmail. This while the #AAASmtg has been exploring the notion that research has been biased towards materials faculty can access; this adds a hurdle to research efforts for folks at smaller schools with less extensive online journal holdings. It would be interesting to see what bias was induced into paper citations by JSTOR's moving wall.

New Zealand is getting worse too. But it's getting worse slower than other places. Shame that the National government hasn't figured out that one of our comparative advantages is in freedom, and in particular tech freedom; we ought not have bent over so quickly when the FBI came calling for Kim DotCom. American tech folks looking for exit options have noticed...

A lesson in contrasts

American legal scholars debate whether provisions in the latest defence appropriations bill would allow the government to hold citizens indefinitely without charge. Here's the latest summary:

The law provides that indefinite detention without charge may be imposed on anyone who has provided “substantial support” to groups that are “associated forces” of al-Qaeda; but it leaves undefined what constitutes “substantial support” and which groups might qualify as “associated forces.” Thus far, the lower federal courts have upheld detention of al-Qaeda or Taliban members, but not mere supporters, much less supporters of associated forces. And there is much dispute about whether the laws of war permit detention in those circumstances. Now Congress has essentially predetermined that question. Unless this and future administrations construe these provisions as limited by the laws of war, they risk authorizing detention that the laws of war would not. 

See also Volokh and Lawfare. And recall that American drug warriors have argued that marijuana users offer support to terrorist groups.

Meanwhile, in New Zealand, lawyers for the police have advised that sniffer-dog searches in schools breach students' civil rights, and so the police have stopped carrying out such searches, previously requested by the schools, pending further legal advice:

"Police are currently considering the legal implications regarding searches by drug dogs in schools," a spokeswoman said.

"Police understands the Ministry of Education is also working on good practice guidelines for schools so that they can search and confiscate items that may pose a safety risk."

She said police gave other support to schools, such as drug education, arranging counselling and prosecutions. "Where schools detect more serious drug offending, police become more actively involved."

Hutt Valley High School has historically had a police dog team conduct annual searches. But its request was refused this year "on the grounds that the police have no cause to search".

...and international travel is easy too

I'd noted a couple weeks ago how simple and inoffensive domestic travel is in New Zealand. Todays's report: Trans Tasman is dead simple too. I'm off to Canberra this morning, catching a seven am flight from Christchurch.

I parked at the airport at 5:55. I got my boarding pass and checked my bag using a kiosk, cleared security, cleared NZ exit customs and was waiting in line for coffee at the gate by 6:20. Now I've a minute to kill before boarding. So I thought I'd remind American readers what air travel is supposed to be like.

Escalation in the police state

The videos Alex posted (I caught them via BoingBoing), along with MR comments on the video, induce despair. [See also TechDirt]

Subsequent to a judicial decision that it is right and proper that the US government use force to prevent people from dancing at the Jefferson Memorial, a flash-mob tested it by wearing earphones and dancing while at the Memorial. And some were thrown to the ground and handcuffed.

Commenter Ben at MR writes:

The whole point of liberty is that you can do what ever you want until it infringes on other peoples ability to do what they want. These people set out to deliberately confront the police and make a scene, infringing on the ability of everyone else to enjoy the monument.

I think these officers behaved entirely appropriately, and removed a bunch of people who were causing a disruption, resisting arrest, and causing an unsafe environment for normal Americans trying to enjoy a day at the monument.

He's joined by others of similar mind at TechDirt.

I wonder what fraction of the US population, or the Canadian one for that matter, would be willing to pay to get to watch a hippie be beaten by police, or share Homer Simpson's fantasy of driving a plow truck through a crowd of protesters.

I wasn't there so I don't know great a disruption was caused by the dancing prior to police intervention. But wouldn't a more sensible police approach have been to just dance with the flash mob for fifteen minutes 'till the crowd decided to disperse? Unfortunately, that option was closed once the park police asked folks to stop and people continued quietly and nonviolently dancing.

The point of civil disobedience is to force the cops' hand to get exactly the kind of video Alex linked: a disproportionate police response to nonviolent behaviour. There was little chance the cops would back down after the request to disperse was ignored, and no way that the cops wouldn't come out looking terrible. When peaceful behaviour is made illegal, this is about the best way of showing the law to be an ass. When enough folks side with Ben, above, in cases like this or in far far worse cases of police abuse, peaceful folks ought to consider their exit options.

I'd hoped to take the kids to the Jefferson Memorial as we're in town. But the three year old and the one year old dance spontaneously. Going home to earthquakes is seeming less bad...