The Canadian House of Commons speaker has criticized Anonymous for posting videos that allegedly constitute a “direct threat” to Public Safety Minister Vic Toews and other MPs.
According to Andrew Scheer, cyber activists associated with the collective breached Toews’ parliamentary privileges in a series of videos that were uploaded to YouTube.
”
All this legislation does is give your corrupted government more power to control its citizens,” the synthesized voice warned Toews.
“We know all about you, Mr. Toews, and during Operation White North we will release what we have unless you scrap this bill.”
Anonymous says it uploaded the video in retaliation for the controversial Bill C-30, which would grant authorities sweeping powers to monitor and track the digital activities of Canadians in real-time. Indeed, C-30 – aka Protecting Children from Internet Predators Act – would require service providers to log and turn over information about their customers, make back door entrances mandatory, and allow remote access of devices without a warrant.
Scheer, however, remained unimpressed with Anonymous and its claims.
“When duly-elected members are personally threatened for their work in Parliament whether introducing a bill, making a statement, or casting a vote – this House must take the matter very seriously,” he ruled.
“[The videos] demonstrate a flagrant disregard of our traditions and a subversive attack on the most fundamental privileges of this House. As your Speaker and the guardian of those privileges, I have concluded that this aspect – the videos posted on the Internet by Anonymous – therefore constitutes a prima facie question of privilege.”
The Commons can now debate whether to order the cyber activists to appear before a committee, which they are obviously unlikely to do.
