The freedom to associate with who ever you want to is a pretty fundamental civil right. In Canada, that freedom is found in Section 2d of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. In the US, the right is established by the first amendment.
By no means am I a constitution expert.
I like to ensure that people examine issues from both sides now, from win and lose, from up and down and still somehow… sorry, that was another Canadian.
A hot news story is how the US National Security Agency has been looking at people’s phone records. Some are arguing that this constitutes unreasonable search and seizure. People are up in arms. I find it fascinating that people don’t mind their phone company having this information, or that someone working in a call centre half-way around the world can look at your calling patterns. But, not the people who take an oath of office to defend and protect you.
Have we seen too many movies?
Let me just note that both the Canadian Charter and US Fourth Amendment use the modifier ‘unreasonable’ in front of ‘search and seizure’. Both countries modify the freedom of assembly with the adjective ‘peaceful’. So, neither right is absolute. Both sides now.
These are different times. When we read that the UK had identified the transit bombers in advance but did not act because of resources, one wonders if people would have preferred that there had been no surveillance at all.
Why am I weighing in on this? It appears to me to have telecom policy issues associated with it although clearly this is an area better kept for real lawyers – not those of us trained for the NY criminal bar by distance learning – otherwise known as watching Law & Order.
In the interest of full disclosure, I’ll state that my politics on this subject are likely skewed in part by having one of my kids attending school in a part of the world that sees more than its fair share of terrorism. Is any amount fair?