Blog Post #5: Anonymous Strikes Again

Canadian government websites went dark Wednesday due to a DDOS attack from Anonymous. This attack occurred due to the recently-passed anti-terrorism bill, C-51, which "contains a variety of increased powers for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS)" (Payton, "Anti-Terrorism"). Although it is a relatively short bill (62 pages), its contents have been the subject of many protests months before it was passed. One of the biggest subjects of controversy of it is the focus of the word "would" instead of "will."

Many new rules being enacted focus on the potential of someone committing an act of terrorism rather than what he or she plans to do (i.e. a focus on the hypothetical rather than certainties). For example, the threshold of arrest is now lowered so law enforcement can arrest an individual based on suspicion of terrorism alone. One can also now be arrested for promoting terrorism, and radical websites can be taken down (though whether they remain down is another story entirely).






What is interesting is that Canada's current transformation is similar to what was seen with the Patriot Act in the United States in 2001. From both CBC and BBC sources I read, neither made a comparison to it. Although I have read neither the Patriot Act nor C-51 word-for-word, there is a clear commonality between the two. The Patriot Act, similar to C-51, has numerous rules based on suspicion of terrorist activities rather than hard evidence. It will be interesting to see how this develops in the weeks to come.


You can read C-51 here.



Sources used:

"Canadian Government Websites Go Dark after 'cyber Attack' - BBC News." BBC News. N.p., 17 June 2015. Web. 18 June 2015.

Payton, Laura. "Anti-terrorism Powers: What's in the Legislation?" CBCnews. CBC/Radio Canada, 01 Feb. 2015. Web. 18 June 2015.