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Anonymous on the attack against Public Security Minister Vic Toews

by Tim McSorley

Members of Anonymous, the loose affiliation of hackers worldwide, have re-published the tweets (scroll down) from the Vikileaks30 twitter account which last week published personal details about Conservative Public Security Minister Vic Toews. The satirical - and controversial - account was spawned following Toews' introduction of Bill C-30, Protecting Children from Internet Predators Act, and his statement in parliament that critics of the bill are siding with child pornographers.

The original Vikileaks account was shut down last week, but in announcing their Operation White North, members of Anonymous have reposted all the previous tweets and are promising to continue revealing personal details of Toews' life should he not kill the bill.

Bill C-30 is the latest incarnation of controversial lawful access legislation that was earlier integrated into Bill C-10, the Conservative government's omnibus crime bill. Lawful access legislation was originally pulled from the bill because of the controversy it stirred by allowing police greater access to users' online information (for concerns at the time, see Kim Croswell's piece for The Dominion, Online Privacy and the Police). The new bill has done little to allay concerns, and Michael Geist has, as usual, done the best job of breaking down what the concerns are. His blog at www.michaelgeist.ca also probably provides the most up to date information about the bill and the debates around it, along with Vancouver-based Open Media, which has galvanized the public movement against lawful access legislation with its 100,000-strong Stop Online Spying campaign.

With tomorrow also being Toewsday and the government already significantly backing down on the bill, could the Anonymous campaign put it over the edge and kill Bill C-30?.

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